Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
by Adama's Shadow
Summary: This is a crossover, it is based on Harry Potter and the Olympians by VINcredible. A story I truly hope he finishes someday. This is a Harry/Hermione ship. Powerful! Demi-god!Harry, Harry/Hermione soul-bond.


Note: §Indicates Parseltongue§

AN: Significant portions of this story are directly based on Harry Potter and the Olympians by VINcredible, an excellent story that I fervently hope he finishes someday.

**Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief**

**Chapter 1: Harry Goes To Summer Camp**

Dumbledore watched as Harry Potter took Tom Riddle's Diary and shoved it into a dirty sock and ran out of the room after Malfoy Senior and chuckled to himself, catching onto Harry's idea. This amusement however quickly disappeared as Harry's new circumstances began to weigh heavily upon his mind. Up to now, he had been able to keep Harry safe through a combination of the Wards around Privet Drive and the protective wards of the castle. It got harder and harder each year as Harry grew older and now at almost 13 years old, he was starting to attract 'their' attention more and more. Now that he'd killed a Basilisk, this act would increase his 'Scent' sufficiently that the Wards around Privet Drive would no longer be able to protect him. Other arrangements would now have to be made in order to keep the boy alive, even if he could no longer truly be safe.

Opening a drawer on his desk Dumbledore withdrew a small leather sack which jingled slightly when he sat it down on the mahogany surface and opened it revealing several large gold coins inside. After waving his wand and muttering an incantation, a fine mist shot out of the tip like steam from a boiling kettle, however instead of evaporating like steam it settled into a small cloud over his desk.

"Oh goddess, accept my offering," Dumbledore chanted before casting a single gold coin into the mist which disappeared with a golden shimmer.

"United States, Long Island, Camp Half Blood, Chiron," Dumbledore recited as if reading an address off an envelope.

The mist shimmered and suddenly Dumbledore was looking into a room with wooden walls, classical music filled the air and a man, with long brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard could be seen, sitting in a wheelchair and reading a book. The man had yet to notice Dumbledore looking at him through the magical window that had opened in thin air.

"Chiron my old friend," Dumbledore called to get his attention.

Chiron looked up from his book startled and noticed him for the first time. He smiled and after marking his place, closed the book and put it down.

"Albus, it's good to see you again my friend. If you've called to see if I have any new information, I'm afraid that I've still had no luck, the only monster I know of that petrifies is Medusa, but her petrifaction is always full stone," Chiron stopped as Dumbledore held up a hand.

"That matter has now been resolved and the monster is dead. As it turns out, the monster in question was a Basilisk," Dumbledore explained.

"A Basilisk! By the Gods!" Chiron asked, stunned. "Albus, I've never heard of a Basilisk's gaze petrifying anyone."

"Indeed my friend, it seems that everyone who had been petrified looked at it indirectly. In a reflection, though a camera lens, etc.," Albus explained.

"Then the gods were truly favoring you Albus, they should have died. I assume you used a rooster to kill it?" Chiron asked.

"That I know my friend and using a rooster would indeed have been optimal, but alas it was not. You see, that's why I've called you my old friend, the Basilisk was killed by young Harry," Albus said gravely.

"That's not good Albus, after killing a monster that powerful his scent will now be overwhelming," Chiron muttered, almost to himself.

"Yes indeed, which is why I can't send him back to his relatives this summer… we can't wait any longer I'm afraid, the time has come for him to go to camp," Dumbledore said almost sadly.

"Albus, right now may not be the best time for us to take in new campers," Chiron looked decidedly uncomfortable.

"Because of what happened during the Winter Solstice?" Dumbledore asked making Chiron's gaze snap back to focus on his old friend.

"Albus, how do you know of that?" Chiron asked.

"My mother, she passes on tidbits every now and again," Dumbledore answered with a shrug and a smile.

Chiron rolled his eyes before answering, "Well, then you know how suspicious it would be for new campers to be revealed right now with tensions so high on Olympus."

"Chiron, we no longer have any choice. Harry's true nature has begun to reveal itself. Earlier this year he was attacked by an entire colony of Acromantula, despite Hagrid's request that they not harm my students. Harry won't survive the summer at his relatives now that he has killed the basilisk. He'll continue to attend Hogwarts each year of course, but from now moving forward he must spend his summers at Camp Half-Blood learning the skills he will need to survive. We both know it's where he belongs."

"I truly hope that you're sure about this Albus, for once he's come to camp, there can be no turning back, he'll have to fully embrace who he is and the monsters will _never_ ignore him again," Chiron warned.

"It's already too late for that I'm afraid. Harry killed the Basilisk with this," Dumbledore said as he lifted a sword into view, it was a silvery color, had a jewel embedded in the hilt and the word Gryffindor engraved along the blade which had a faint silvery glow to it. Chiron grimaced.

"Goblin forged mithril?" he asked.

"Yes, when Harry killed the Basilisk with this, it was the equivalent of him sending up a flare announcing his presence to every monster within a thousand miles. The beast was killed just over an hour ago and already the wards around the castle have alerted me to a pair of Lethifolds trying to get into the grounds and a Kelpie has appeared in the lake. And it will only get worse. I will be strengthening the wards as much as possible over the summer holiday to better protect the castle and Hogsmeade during the school year."

"Very well then…" Chiron said with a sigh, "If you can arrange transport to New York City, I'll have a protector escort him the rest of the way from there."

"Thank you my friend, I am once again in your debt… now, how are things proceeding with that new half blood you've taken an interest in? Mr. Jackson was it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Not good at all I'm afraid, he was attacked by one of the Furies recently, I may have no choice but to bring him to camp as well, it's far sooner than I had planned…"

**XXXXX**

Harry sat in front of the headmaster's desk feeling utterly dumbfounded; an hour ago the rest of the students had boarded the Hogwarts Express and left for home for the summer. Dumbledore had asked Harry to remain behind for a private meeting about his summer arrangements. What followed had shattered Harry's already somewhat shaky reality. Dumbledore told him of Greek Gods, Monsters, Demigods and a Camp where they learned to fight and survive. It didn't seem all that implausible Harry supposed; after all, most people thought magic was merely myth or trickery, if that was real, why not the Gods and the rest?

"So… just to sum up, the Greek Gods are actually real, they sometimes decide to have children with mortal humans, these children are called Demigods or Half-bloods… and it turns out that I'm one?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore answered.

"There's a camp in New York in America where these Demigods go for training, to learn how to fight and survive… and you want me to go there for the summer instead of back to Privet Drive?"

"Yes," Dumbledore answered.

"Professor, have you been drinking?" Harry asked eyeing the old man skeptically.

"I'm not drunk, Harry," Dumbledore answered.

"That's not what I asked you, sir," Harry pointed out.

"I know," Dumbledore responded with a shrug.

Harry removed his glasses and leant forward, pinching the bridge of his nose, "So… you are saying that my parents aren't…" Harry didn't know how to phrase the rest of his question.

Seeing Harry's sudden discomfort, Dumbledore felt great sympathy for his young pupil, he leaned forward.

"Harry, I don't know who your Godly parent is, I wish I did so I could tell you. What I can tell you for certain, is that Lily Potter was most definitely pregnant with you, so with that we can at the very least say with certainty that it was a male god. I can also tell you that James knew you were not his and he still loved you as his son, so much so, in fact that he blood adopted you… making you his son by blood and magic when you were just six months old," Dumbledore said kindly. Harry blinked away a few tears, swiped a hand across his eyes and replaced his glasses.

"So… where do we go from here, sir?" Harry asked.

"I will not, of course, force you to go to the camp, Harry; for it is your life and your choice…"

"Sir," Harry interrupted him, "My decision was made the very instant you mentioned an alternative to returning to the Dursleys. Of course I'll go."

"Very well then, Harry. I have a portkey already prepared to take you to New York City, someone from the camp will meet you near the arrival point at 9 o'clock this morning," Dumbledore explained.

"But sir," Harry said with a frown. "It's already 1 o'clock in the afternoon… and what's a portkey?"

"Ah, but you forget the time difference, young Harry, England is five hours ahead of New York. You will leave here at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and arrive in New York at 9 o'clock in the morning," the old man smiled at him, "A portkey is a form of magical transportation that can take you from one place to another almost instantaneously," Dumbledore explained and Harry nodded indicating that he understood.

"Now, before you go we have a few more things to take care of and there are a few things you need to know… first of all, you _will_ be free to use magic in America," Dumbledore revealed.

"Really? But sir, the underage restrictions…" Harry started.

"Do not exist in America," Dumbledore interrupted, "as there is no established magical government over there. America is the sovereign domain of the Olympians and the International Confederation of Wizards knows better than to attempt to impose their rules on the American supernatural world…" he paused, "or at least, they do now," Dumbledore said with a wince as he remembered what happened to the last member of the ICW who tried to establish government control in America.

"What if Muggles see me?" Harry asked worriedly, it was clear to Dumbledore however that Harry was excited about being able to use magic whenever he wanted.

"Harry, in America there is a magical force that we call the Mist, it manipulates what Muggles, or Mortals as they call them, see and remember when they come into contact with the supernatural. For example, a man who sees you using magic will simply see you waving a stick in a strange way; he won't see the spells… However, I do fully expect you to show good judgment and to be responsible with your use of magic, Harry," Dumbledore said as he gazed sternly at the young wizard over the top of his glasses.

"Yes sir, I promise I will. Is there anything else I should know?" Harry asked.

"Most of what you need to know, you will be taught at camp. There is however, one last thing that we have to do before you leave, we need to go and take care of your spoils," Dumbledore said while standing up and walking around to Harry's side of the table.

"Spoils? I'm not sure what you mean sir?" Harry asked.

"When monsters are killed they usually turn to dust and are sent to Tartarus. However, sometimes… particularly in the wake of an epic confrontation, parts of them will be left behind as a 'Spoil of War' if you will, most of the time it's something small, such as a claw or a fang."

"But the Basilisk didn't turn to dust Professor, it just died," Harry explained.

"That's because most of the outside of its body is a Spoil. If you were to cut it open I think you'd find that most of its insides have turned to dust. All that remains is the hide and skeleton, you need to decide what to do with it, my boy."

Harry furrowed his brow; he truly had no idea what to do with over 70 feet of snake skin and bone.

"I do have a suggestion Harry, if you're interested in hearing it," Dumbledore offered. Harry looked up at him and waited for him to continue. "Sacrifice it."

"What!" Harry exclaimed with wide eyes.

"It never hurts to win a few points with your godly parent," Dumbledore said with a knowing smile. "Many demigods sacrifice their spoils of war to the Gods, more specifically to their particular Godly parent."

"Alright sir, that seems to be my best option, but how do I do it and who do I sacrifice it to since we don't know who my parent is?" Harry asked.

"Take my arm, Harry," Dumbledore said extending his arm to Harry.

As soon as Harry touched the headmasters sleeve, Fawkes the Phoenix glided over from his perch and landed gently on Dumbledore's shoulder, in a flash of flames they were gone.

When Harry opened his eyes he was no longer in the Headmaster's office, he was back in the second worst place he'd ever visited (the first being the Dursleys). In front of him lay the massive corpse of the Basilisk, exactly where he left it.

"Read this out loud please, Harry," Dumbledore said as he held out a small piece of parchment.

Harry took the parchment and quickly skimmed it, finding nothing unacceptable, he started reading.

"I, Harry James Potter, offer the remains of this Basilisk to my godly parent, whoever they may be," as soon as Harry finished reading, the giant snake's body was enveloped in a fiery white light and when the light died down, the Basilisk was gone.

"Whoa…" Harry said absently.

"Yes indeed young Harry, the first time I made an offering I had a similar reaction," Dumbledore said as he took Harry's shoulder and Fawkes flamed them both back up to Dumbledore's office.

Harry instinctively ran his hands through his hair, checking for burns or fires that luckily weren't there. He stopped when what Dumbledore had said finally clicked.

"Sir, are you a Demigod too?" Harry asked with wide eyes.

"Yes he is, young one," a new voice filled the air, Harry spun around and prepared to eject his wand into his hand from his wand holster, standing by the door was a beautiful woman, dressed in a long black open front robe, a knee-length gray dress underneath and high heeled shoes, her hair was slightly longer than shoulder length and was black and curly.

"Hello Mother, what a pleasant surprise, what brings you by today?" Dumbledore asked.

"M-M-Mother?" Harry stuttered in shock.

"Not exactly what you expected from a god am I young Harry?" she said with a grin as she walked past Harry and pulled Dumbledore into an awkward hug.

"You feel thin dear, you need to eat more proper food and fewer sweets," the woman said as she separated from the headmaster, she snapped her fingers and the Lemon Drops on Dumbledore's desk disappeared leaving an empty bowl. Dumbledore let out a sigh as he sat back down.

"Harry, allow me introduce my mother, Hecate," Dumbledore said while staring longingly at the empty bowl.

"Hecate?" Harry asked curiously, he searched his memory trying to go over the Greek gods.

"Goddess of Crossroads, Witchcraft, Magic and patron goddess of all Witches, Wizards, Wiccans and Warlocks," the woman said as she snapped her fingers again and sat on a chair that appeared beneath her. Another snap and three cups of tea appeared on the desk.

"I'm not surprised you don't know of me Harry. I'm generally considered to be a minor god, not as well known as the Olympians. Speaking of the Olympians, I'm actually here on business Albus, something very interesting happened just a few minutes ago." Hecate said as she passed one of the cups to Harry and took one for herself.

"The Olympian Council was having a meeting concerning the… 'incident' that took place during the Winter Solstice, I was there on a different matter. However, just as Ares was standing to give his annual speech about why they should go to war with Canada, a 70 foot Basilisk appeared midair above him and fell on top of him."

Harry choked on his tea.

"A-Ares? As in the God of War?" Harry asked looking a little scared.

"Indeed, you should have seen everyone's faces when it happened; Apollo and Hermes were rolling on the ground they were laughing so hard. Athena looked like her face was going to split open she was smiling so much. Hell, even Zeus and Poseidon grinned for the first time in over six months." Hecate said with a smile but it quickly turned into a frown.

"However, then the arguing started again, the Basilisk was obviously a sacrifice to one of the Olympians but they don't know which of their children offered it, Ares claims it must be his since it landed on him. Zeus stopped the arguing, saying that they had enough to talk about already. He sent me find the Demigod who made the sacrifice and get his or her name for the Olympians." Hecate explained as she looked at Harry curiously.

"H-Harry Potter ma'am," Harry said very carefully, like if he forgot his manners she might turn him into something unpleasant.

"Oh my, Harry it's almost time," Dumbledore exclaimed as he spotted the time, he flicked his wand at Harry's trunk which was in the corner, it quickly shrunk. As if knowing that it was time to go, his familiar Hedwig glided through the open window and perched on Harry's shoulder.

"Alright Harry, here's the portkey and your trunk, now don't forget what I told you about being responsible with your magic. I'll see you in September," Dumbledore said quickly as he thrust the trunk and a small marble into Harry's hand.

"I won't, thank you sir. It was nice meeting you ma'a…" before Harry could finish, the clock struck two and Harry disappeared in a swirl of light.

"Such a polite boy, certainly nothing like Ares. Well this was a pleasant visit, but I'm sure the Olympians are waiting for me. Do take care of yourself my dear and for goodness sake Albus, have a shave," Hecate said before disappearing in a flash of light.

The headmaster sighed as he once again eyed his empty candy dish.

**XXXXX**

Harry felt the sensation of a hook behind his navel and he was suddenly pulled away from Dumbledore's office, he was surrounded by swirling lights, after almost ten seconds the hook disappeared and he landed flat on his face on the dirty ground.

"Ow, first Floo… now Portkeys," Harry groaned as he sat up and rubbed his sore nose. He wondered if there was a form of Magical Transportation that wouldn't end with him landing in a heap on the ground.

Searching his surroundings he found himself standing in an alley, two nearby trashcans were overflowing with rubbish and a rusty fire escape that barely clung to the side of a wall with Hedwig perched on its edge. Checking that he still had his shrunken trunk in his pocket and his wand in his arm holster, he walked out of the alley and into a huge sprawling city, Hedwig took to the sky. Harry had of course been to London, but nothing could have prepared him for this. The first thing Harry noticed was the building directly in front of him; it was taller than any building that he'd ever seen. The architecture was familiar; he knew he'd seen it in several movies that Dudley had watched. It was the Empire State Building, which meant he had indeed arrived in New York City.

Standing in front of the building was a young man, in his late teens, wearing loose trousers and an orange t-shirt. In one hand was a pair of wooden crutches he was leaning on and in the other was a medium sized, square piece of cardboard with the words '**Harry Potter**' written in black marker. The right upper corner of the sign was missing and strangely, it looked like somebody had taken a bite out of it.

As Harry approached the other teen, he noticed that the boy seemed to be unusually nervous, constantly looking over his shoulder and at the sky, like he was expecting something to swoop down and attack him at any moment.

"Hey," Harry greeted as he reached the other teen, the boy jumped so high he almost fell over.

"Blaa-ha-ha… d-don't sneak up on m-eeee!" he said with wide eyes. He'd said the word 'me' like a goat, or a sheep bleating.

"Um… I'm sorry? I'm Harry Potter," Harry said with an outstretched hand.

"I'm S-S-Sid… can you p-please tell me the n-name of the man who s-sent you heeere?" Sid asked as he looked at Harry's outstretched hand nervously.

"Albus Dumbledore," Harry answered.

Sid seemed to accept this because he nodded and started to walk away after gesturing for Harry to follow him. Harry frowned and dropped his hand, then shrugged and started after the other boy.

Harry followed Sid for about five minutes before they came to a parked white van. Printed on the side of the van was the name of a company, Delphi Strawberry Service. A man was sitting in the front seat rubbing his eyes, which was quite a feat seeing as he seemed to be covered in them. Eyes covered his face, neck, arms and hands… and those were just the ones that Harry could see!

"Th-That's Argus, try not to st-stare at him," Sid said as they approached the van.

Harry nodded and got into the back of the van and sat down on a large comfy seat that looked like it'd been ripped apart a dozen times and strapped back together again. When the van started moving, a clinking sound drew Harry's attention, on the driver's side wall of the van opposite him, was a rack filled with a dozen bronze weapons, a couple swords, an axe, a hammer, a pair of hedge clippers of all things and several more.

An hour later they were still driving, Sid and Argus didn't say anything to him or each other and at this point, he didn't really know if Argus even _could_ speak. Harry started thinking about the camp and what it would be like, when he'd first started at Hogwarts he'd been a nervous mess, not knowing what he was getting into… now here he was almost two years later on his way to go through it again.

After a while Harry started to get tired, he figured it had something to do with the time difference between England and America, Portkey lag, or something like that. He leaned back in the seat and quickly fell asleep.

_In the dream, Harry was back in the Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk reared back opening its mouth. Harry looked down, he was holding a gleaming silvery sword of medium length with an eagle engraved in the ornate hilt and the handle seemed to be covered in runes. Past the Basilisk was a girl laying on the ground, but it wasn't Ginny Weasley, this girl had short black hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose. Her head turned and she looked at him with electric blue eyes._

"_Child of the Sky… brace yourself!" she said._

_Harry looked back at the Basilisk, it had changed, it was a bit smaller and it's scales were now sickly yellow and it had golden eyes, just as it lunged at him, the world around him shook._

Harry's eyes snapped open as the van was hit very hard and flipped onto its side, above him the weapons in the rack came loose, one of the spears missing Harry's face by an inch.

"What's happening?" Harry cried out loud. Argus and Sid were hitting the windshield, Argus with his foot, Sid with his crutch, both trying to smash it out.

"W-W-We're b-being attacked!" Sid cried out

Something slammed into the van again and Harry suddenly understood what it must feel like to be inside a washing machine as the van tumbled over and over again like it was being rolled downhill, the weapons made an awful noise as they clattered around as well and again somehow… miraculously, none of them impaled Harry. When the spinning stopped, a slightly dizzy Harry tried to get back to his feet, but then the ceiling buckled, the left and right sides started moving towards him and the floor of the van moved upwards, it was like a giant elastic band had been wrapped around the van so tight it was cutting it in half, Sid and Argus were in the front half and Harry was in the back. Harry heard a smashing sound followed by a loud hissing voice shrieking.

§MEAT!§

Harry spun around and saw a massive snake's head poking in through a smashed window, it wasn't quite as big as the Basilisk, but it was just as terrifying. Its scales were a sickly yellow color and its eyes were golden… it was the snake from his dream. Harry didn't have time to really process this as the snake lunged at him, Harry scrambled backwards, away from its teeth and yelped as he landed on something. Thinking maybe it was one of the swords; Harry reached back and groped blindly, never taking his eyes off the massive snake. Feeling a metallic object, he grabbed it hoping for a weapon to defend himself; he lifted it and watched in wonder as the ornate runed handle in his hand grew into the sword with the eagle from his vision. It felt… right in his hand, like he could do anything while he held this blade.

The snake lunged at him, he had nowhere to go, there was now a barrier of twisted metal between him and the front of the van, so he did the only thing he could, he slashed the sword across the monster's face as it closed in and by some miracle, it hit its mark. The snake pulled its head back screeching in pain, its eyes destroyed by the sword. Its head pulled back so fast that the back door of the van ripped off its hinges and disappeared with the snake. Seeing a way out into the open Harry rushed forward and jumped into the afternoon sun, sword in hand.

Harry scrambled away from the van for a few moments before turning around; he now understood why the van was crushed. The snake's body was very long, nearly as long as the Basilisk and it had wrapped its coils around the body of the van several times and was constricting around it, crushing it. They were in a grassy area, maybe 30 yards from the road where the van had obviously been driving before the snake attacked.

"P-P-Python!" Sid shouted loudly in panic, he and Argus had managed to smash out the front window and escaped the van.

"A python?" Harry asked in confusion, he wasn't an expert, but this didn't look like any normal snake.

"No! Not A python, THE Python, the snake killed by Apollo!" Sid shouted as he held his crutch up like a club. Argus had retrieved one of the bronze spears and was jabbing at Python as it flailed around blindly.

Python stopped flailing around and its head turned, locking onto the sounds of their voices. With a hiss of anger it knocked Argus aside with its tail and rushed towards Harry, unraveling from the now crushed van in the process. Harry dove and rolled away to the side and Python's mouth hit the grassy ground as Harry rolled back to his feet.

Falling back on his standard plan for such situations, doing something recklessly stupid, Harry jumped on Python's neck just below its head and flipping the sword in his grip, drove the blade into its neck behind the head, apparently he missed the spine though as the Python reared back and screeched in pain again, it thrashed side to side and back and forth, Harry tried to keep his grip on the snake with his left arm while gripping the sword tightly with his right hand.

§Eat you! EAT YOU!§ Python screamed in angry words that only Harry could understand. One particularly strong buck made the sword come loose and Harry flew through the air away from Python.

Harry landed with a grunt and rolled with the force of the landing, somehow still grasping the blood drenched sword. He leapt to his feet.

Python turned its attention back to Harry and without a moment of hesitation lunged at him, Harry tried moving away but his back slammed into a tree he hadn't known was there. Python was an inch away from his face when it stopped mid lunge and dropped to the ground. Harry looked over and saw that Argus had stabbed his spear through Python's tail, effectively pinning it to the ground. Python turned and bared its teeth at Argus, it was getting frustrated at being kept from its prey.

What happened next took less than ten seconds; Python rushed towards Argus and quickly encircled him twice wrapping him in its coils and started squeezing. Harry's eyes widened, he'd seen what Python had done to the metal van. Argus was flesh and bone, he wouldn't last nearly as long. After only a few seconds Argus' many eyes began to roll back as he lost consciousness.

Argus had saved his life only a few seconds ago, so Harry rushed forward shouting at Python.

"§LET HIM GO!§" Harry didn't know if he shouted in English or Parseltongue but Python turned his attention back to him, once again snake lashed out at him. This time Harry didn't move, he didn't dodge, he didn't back away. With perfect aim he thrust his hand forward still holding the sword at just the right moment.

The sword entered python's mouth and pierced the roof, penetrating the massive snake's brain, killing it instantly. Python turned to golden dust and blew away in the wind, Argus now free from the snake's grasp heaved deep breaths of air and slowly staggered to his feet.

"You ok?" Harry asked. Argus responded with a nod and thumbs up.

Harry suddenly felt pain in his arm just above the wrist and noticed one of Python's fangs pierced through it. The situation felt horribly familiar to Harry, only this time he didn't have a phoenix there to heal him. He pulled the fang out and suddenly felt very faint.

"Y-You killed it?" Sid said in shock as he came out of his hiding place behind the crushed van. "You killed P-P-Python…"

Harry's eyes went down to Sid's legs, at first he thought he was hallucinating; he saw goat's legs with hooves. Harry's mind immediately went to a book he read in primary school, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.'

"You're a Faun?" Harry asked groggily.

"Bla-A-a-a! SATYR!" Sid yelled after bleating. Argus' chest heaved with silent laughter.

The poison finally got to Harry, he fell to his knees and everything went dark.

"Oh Styx, he's been b-bitten!" was the last thing Harry heard before he lost consciousness.

**XXXXX**

Harry slowly woke up with the taste of treacle in his mouth. He was lying on a soft bed and sitting next to him, was a pretty girl with blond hair and stormy grey eyes. She was holding a bowl of some kind of porridge.

"Wh-Who are you?" Harry mumbled, his throat felt dry and raspy.

"Don't try to talk. You were almost dead when Argus brought you in, you need to rest," the girl said before spooning some of the porridge into his mouth, Harry lost consciousness again as he swallowed the treacle flavored porridge.

When Harry awoke again he was laying in a hammock on the porch of a large farmhouse. Harry looked up and found himself looking out over a beautiful green meadow, the smell of strawberries filled the air.

"How do you feel?" a voice asked, Harry turned over to look at who'd spoken, it was a man with a neatly trimmed beard and long brown hair, wearing a tweed suit. He was sitting in a wheelchair.

"Like I fought a giant snake… again, and got bitten, _again_…" Harry groaned as he felt his throbbing head. The man chuckled.

"Might I suggest drinking that," the man said as he pointed at a glass of golden liquid on a small table next to Harry, also on the table was his shrunken trunk and the ornate handle for the sword he had used to fight Python. A quick check verified his wand was still holstered on his arm. With his dry throat Harry was happy to have something to quench his thirst.

He raised the glass to his lips and took a sip, he almost recoiled, with the color of the liquid he'd been expecting apple juice, but the liquid tasted like butterscotch, just like a drink Mrs. Weasley had given him last summer, Butterbeer. Harry quickly emptied the glass and set it back on the table.

"Better?" the man asked. Harry frowned as he considered his condition; his headache had disappeared while drinking the liquid.

"Yes, much better, thank you, sir," Harry said with a nod.

"You gave us quite a scare young Harry, when Sid and Argus brought you over the ward line you were barely breathing. Oh… how rude of me, I haven't yet introduced myself," the man wheeled forward and held out a hand.

"I'm Chiron, Activities Director here at the camp," he introduced himself as Harry took his hand.

"Harry Potter," Harry replied as they shook.

"Please, walk with me Harry," Chiron turned around and wheeled off towards the corner of the farmhouse; Harry stood and grabbed the ornate handle and his trunk, pocketed both and then followed.

"Is Argus ok? Python almost…" Harry asked in concern.

"He's fine Harry, he has expressed his sincere gratitude to you for saving his life," Chiron said with a smile.

"He saved mine first," Harry said with a shrug. Then he frowned for a moment, "How long was I out?"

"A week Harry, Python is extremely poisonous, it is frankly a miracle that you survived."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, maybe his surviving the Basilisk had given him some immunity to poison?

As Harry and Chiron reached the other side of the farmhouse, Harry let out a gasp of astonishment. A huge valley stretched out in front of him with a large river leading into a massive harbor, the Long island sound he guessed, about a mile away. From this viewpoint Harry could see most of the camp, the landscape was dotted with several Greek style buildings, a massive open air pavilion, an amphitheater, an arena, a volleyball court, an archery range, stables with winged horses, a lake with several canoes and a group of smaller buildings all different colors and placed in a way that shaped an inverted 'U'.

"It's always like that the first time you see it," a girl's voice said, Harry turned and saw the pretty blond girl who'd fed him treacle porridge when he first woke up; she was stroking a familiar white owl.

"Hedwig!" Harry said with a smile, he'd been worried about her during the battle. Hedwig spread her wings and flew to him, landing on his shoulder.

"Are you ok?" Harry asked her while stroking her.

Hedwig rubbed her head against his cheek; she then let out a little screech and nipped at the white bandage around his wrist.

"I'll be fine," Harry assured with a smile, she eyed him critically for a moment, as if to determine his honesty and then finally bobbed her head. Harry laughed.

The girl smiled at the interaction between Harry and Hedwig.

"Harry this is Annabeth Chase, she looked after you while you were sick," Chiron introduced.

"Thank you," Harry said with a smile, Annabeth answered with a shrug.

"It seems to be all I'm doing these days," she said in an annoyed tone that confused Harry.

"Another Demigod arrived here a few days ago and he was injured when the Minotaur attacked him just outside the portal to the camp, Annabeth nursed him back to health as well, he woke up just a few hours ago," Chiron explained.

"Now, let's get you settled into the camp, Annabeth, if you would show Harry to cabin eleven please?" Chiron asked. Annabeth nodded and gestured to Harry to follow her.

"Oh and Harry," Chiron called to get his attention.

Harry turned back to Chiron to see him standing up out of his chair, only he was leaving his legs behind, as if the chair was magically expanded. A horse's body emerged from the wheelchair and stepped forward with Chiron's upper body attached to it where the head should be, Chiron was a Centaur.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

**XXXXX**

**Chapter 2: Harry Makes New Friends**

Harry followed Annabeth down to the multicolored buildings placed in an inverted U-shape; they were cabins, twelve of them. Each one was unique, one was solid gold while another was silver, and one cabin had vines creeping up the sides and had grass on the roof. Another was bright red, with fist patterns along the sides, barbed wire lining the roof and a stuffed boar's head over the door. The cabins surrounded a common area with statues a fountain and a bonfire even though it was hot outside, a small girl of maybe 8 or 9 years sat by it poking the hot coals occasionally with a stick.

The cabin they approached was the first one on the left row and the only one that looked like a regular summer camp cabin. The threshold was worn down with brown paint peeling off of it; above the door was the Caduceus, a twined pole with two snakes wrapped around it, which made Harry a little nervous. Harry had nothing against snakes in general, but his experiences of late with them had not been positive ones.

The cabin was absolutely packed with people, both boys and girls, there were bunks beds along the walls and the floor was covered with sleeping bags.

"Regular or undetermined?" someone shouted from the back of the cabin shouted, Harry couldn't tell who.

"Undetermined," Annabeth answered, the entire cabin groaned.

Someone stepped forward who looked older than the others, he kinda reminded Harry of Oliver Wood. He looked to be approximately 18 to 19, had short sandy blonde hair and a thick white scar running from under his right eye down to his jaw.

"Two newbies in one day, huh? I'm Luke," the boy said as he held out his hand, Harry took it immediately.

"Harry," he replied.

"Luke will be your counselor, until you're determined," Annabeth's voice was higher than normal and her cheeks had darkened, Harry had seen the signs at least dozen times over this past year from Ginny Weasley. Annabeth had a huge crush on Luke.

"You ok Annabeth? You're looking a little flushed," Harry asked with a small smirk. Annabeth shot a glare at Harry.

"Anyway, what did you mean undetermined?" Harry asked wanting to change the subject before Annabeth throttled him.

"Each cabin belongs to one of the twelve Olympians, demigod children live in the cabin belonging to their parent. This is the Hermes cabin" Luke explained.

Harry's eyebrows rose as he turned and looked at the small sea of kids in the cabin.

"Hermes has been busy," Harry uttered making Luke snort.

"Nah, we don't know who's kid you are yet, hence the 'undetermined'. All the undetermined kids stay in the Hermes cabin 'cause he's the god of travelers. Your parent _might_ send a sign claiming you as their kid and then you can move into their cabin, until then you'll stay here." Luke explained.

'Might' was the word that stuck in Harry's mind, many of the kids looked like they'd been there for a long time.

Annabeth took Harry back outside to the common area. When they were outside Annabeth gave Harry a quick punch on the arm, not hard enough to leave a mark but certainly hard enough for Harry to feel it. Guess she was still sore about his comment.

"So, what do think of the camp so far?" Annabeth asked.

"It's brilliant, but I can't help but feel like this is all a dream. Gods, giant snakes, guys covered in eyes… then again I thought the same thing two years ago when I started Hogwarts," Harry answered.

"Hogwarts, that's the magic school you go to right? Chiron told me a little bit about it," Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, I started there when I turned eleven, I'm gonna be spending most of the year there and summers here," Harry said with a smile.

"Won't you miss your family?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Harry said without a moment's hesitation, "Not even a little bit." Harry said it in a way that made it clear to Annabeth that he didn't want to speak about it.

As they walked, they eventually approached a boy Harry's age who was sitting by the lake, several long haired girls were waving at him from under the lake like he was an old friend, the boy waved awkwardly back at them.

"Don't encourage them," Annabeth told him as they approached, "Naiads are terrible flirts."

The boy turned to face them, he had messy black hair and green eyes and he and Harry could easily have passed as brothers.

"Harry, this is Percy Jackson, he's the other camper who recently arrived," Annabeth introduced them. "Percy, this is Harry Potter."

Harry and Percy quickly hit it off, they were both new to the camp so they could understand how strange and new the camp was. The three slowly walked back up to the cabins common area talking about how strange the camp was, they were interrupted by a loud husky voice.

"Well, well! A pair of newbies," they all turned to see a big, tough looking girl with long, stringy brown hair. She wore an orange 'Camp Half Blood' t-shirt that Harry had seen many of the campers wearing and a camouflage jacket. She was flanked by four other girls all as big and mean looking and all dressed in camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure Miss Princess, so I can run you through with it Friday night." the girl replied with a sneer almost worthy of Severus Snape.

"Who're the runts?" she asked.

"Harry Potter, Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

"Like… like the war god?" Percy asked.

"Got a problem with that?" Clarisse asked with a sneer.

"No, it explains the bad smell," he replied cockily.

Clarisse looked thoughtful for a moment, 'Don't strain yourself' Harry thought, though he figured it wouldn't be wise to say that out loud.

"Wait… Potter?" Clarisse asked with a glare at Harry. "So you're the one! I don't know what you did but Dad left us very clear orders about you!" the girls behind her started cracking their knuckles. Annabeth was shocked at this, orders from their father regarding Harry?

"Harry what did you do to get Ares attention?" she asked quietly.

"Well, technically I uh, kinda dropped a 70 foot Basilisk on top of him during a meeting between the Olympians," Harry said as he tried not to sweat. Annabeth's, eyes widened in shock and horror. "I swear it was an accident," Harry quickly added.

The Ares girls rushed forward, two of them grabbed Harry and pinned his arms before he could activate his wand holster and Clarisse had grabbed Percy in a strong headlock.

"We have an initiation ceremony for newbies, you get to go first Prissy, then Pot-head and his will be far worse, so you should be grateful," she said as she started dragging Percy towards a cinderblock building that had 'Toilets' written above the entrance followed by the girls holding Harry.

"Clarisse," Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it wise girl, or you'll get the same treatment!" Clarisse growled.

In the bathroom was a line of toilets on one wall and showers on the other, Clarisse immediately pulled Percy to the first toilet, forced him onto his knees and pushed his head towards it.

Annabeth was stood in one corner looking through her fingers. Harry struggled to get free to help Percy but the girls were too strong.

Suddenly it happened, water exploded out of the toilet, veered around Percy's head and smashed into Clarisse's face, knocking her on her butt. The girls holding onto Harry loosened their grip in surprise and he quickly twisted loose and stepped away and twitched his wrist shooting his wand out of his holster and into his hand with practiced ease. Spinning he took aim.

"_Rictumsempra_!" Harry snapped, the girl to his right bent over and started laughing uncontrollably, holding her stomach. "_Tarantellegra_!" the second girl started dancing uncontrollably.

The remaining two girls rushed towards Clarisse trying to help her, that's when the bathroom exploded, water shot from all of the toilets and rushed to every corner of the room.

"_Protego_!" Harry cried with an upward slash, a blue translucent shield dome covered him just before the water would have hit him. Clarisse and the other Ares girls were pushed out of the bathroom by the water like pieces of rubbish in a gutter.

Percy stood up and the shield around Harry disappeared, the entire bathroom was soaked, the only dry spots were around Harry thanks to his shield and around Percy. Annabeth hadn't been spared the torrent; she was standing in the corner, completely soaked and staring at them both in shock.

"How did you…" Annabeth's question trailed off.

The three walked to the door. Outside Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, a couple dozen other campers had gathered around to gawk, especially at the girl who was still laughing in the mud and the girl who had made it to her feet and was currently dancing.

Clarisse's hair was flattened over her face, her cloths dripping wet and she smelled like sewage. Wiping her hair away from her eyes, she saw them standing there and her face fell into an expression of utter fury. She leapt to her feet.

"Both of you are dead! DEAD!" she shouted.

Percy was about to say something but Harry beat him too it.

"_Scourgify_!" Harry said stabbing his wand at her mouth. Clarisse tried to say something else but just coughed up bubbles. Two of her friends held her back by the arms and dragged her to the bright red cabin, the whole time she was attempting to shout at them and spitting up bubbles. Two more helped the laughing girl and the dancing girl to the cabin as well. As they left, Harry returned his wand to his arm holster.

Annabeth stared at them both.

"What?" Percy asked. "What're you thinking?"

"I'm thinking… I want you both on my team for capture the flag," she said with a smirk.

**XXXXX**

Annabeth spent the next hour showing Harry and Percy around the camp.

"I have training to do, dinner is at seven thirty, just follow your cabin mates up to the pavilion," Annabeth disappeared into cabin six (Athena), leaving Harry and Percy alone. As they made their way back towards the Hermes cabin, Harry explained to Percy about his magic and how he had made the Ares girls dance and laugh. When they were in the cabin they were approached by Luke holding a pair of sleeping bags.

"Percy, Harry, I see you've met. I managed to get hold of a couple of sleeping bags for you," Luke said and passed them the rolled up bags. The three sat down and started talking; soon the topic turned to their godly parents, Luke seemed bitter when he talked about his father.

"You know Harry, Travis and Conner have started a pool on you," Luke said with a smile and he sipped on a glass of water. Travis and Conner Stoll reminded Harry strongly of Fred and George. They were twins and pranksters.

"A pool?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Yeah, on whom your parent is. Some think its Athena because you have an owl, which is her sacred animal. Some think its Hecate because of your magic. Some think it's Zeus because of the lightning bolt scar you have," Luke whispered the last part and Harry heard thunder rumbling outside which made Luke wince.

"What's wrong with it being Zeus?" Harry said and thunder boomed again.

"After World War Two, the big three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, swore on the river Styx not to have any more children with mortals, they were just too powerful and altered the course of human history too much. World War Two was basically a war between the children of Hades and the children of Zeus and Poseidon," Luke explained while trying to ignore the rumbling.

"That's why some of the cabins are empty," Harry realized, while walking around the common area he had noticed that four of the cabins were completely untouched, they were empty and looked as if they'd never been used.

"The Zeus and Poseidon cabins," Luke said with a nod.

"And Hades?" Harry asked

"Hades doesn't have a cabin here, the one next to Zeus' cabin belongs to Hera but it's purely honorary, she's the goddess of marriage so she doesn't go around having affairs with mortals," Luke answered.

"And the silver one?"

"Artemis, she's a virgin goddess, vowed to remain a maiden forever so again, no kids."

"Well, whoever bet on Athena or Hecate are out of luck, I know my Mom was pregnant with me so my godly parent has to be a man… Wait… if Zeus made a vow not to have kids, why are some people betting I'm his?" Harry asked, as it didn't make sense.

"Well… almost eighteen years ago he broke the oath, met a singer that he couldn't resist and had a little girl called Thalia. Five years ago she was being brought to the camp when she was attacked, just before she died her dad turned her into a tree which now protects the camp with its magic," Luke looked out the window up to a large pine tree atop a hill on the borders of camp.

Harry could have sworn Luke looked at the tree with sadness, before he could ask him about it a loud horn echoed around the camp.

"Dinner time," Luke explained. "Cabin eleven, fall in!"

Everyone followed Luke out of the cabin and up to the pavilion along with the other cabins, a dozen Satyrs, the Dryads that had been waving at Percy and Wood Nymphs that seemed to melt out of several of the trees. For the first time Harry saw all of the campers, there were maybe a hundred of them.

The pavilion glowed in the sunset; each pillar held burning torches, in the center was a roaring fire in a brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had their own table, covered in a white cloth, four of the tables were empty and cabin elevens table was overcrowded.

Chiron was there too, he stomped one of his hoof loudly to get everyone's attention. He raised his glass, "To the gods!"

Everyone else raised their glasses and repeated after him; Harry and Percy were the only ones who didn't.

Wood Nymphs came into view holding trays of food, fruit, cheese, fish and an assortment of barbeque.

Luke got Harry and Percy's attention. "Speak to your glass and it will give you whatever you want, as long as it's non-alcoholic that is."

Percy went first he picked up his glass and cautiously said "Cherry coke." The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. Then he had a thought and said, "Blue Cherry Coke." the drink turned blue and Percy smiled.

Harry took his glass and said, "Butterbeer," the glass filled with a golden-brown misty liquid.

"Beer? How did you get that?" Luke asked in disbelief making the entire table look Harry's way.

"Butterbeer, it doesn't have any alcohol," Harry defended himself as he took a drink.

Luke looked at the drink curiously and picked up his own glass, "Butterbeer." he tried a sip and then quickly gulped down half the glass. "That's delicious, tastes just like Butterscotch."

Most of the table ordered their own glass of Butterbeer and started talking about it, soon several of the other tables got in on the action as well.

Before anybody started eating, everyone stood up with their plates and made their way to the center fire, Luke gestured for Percy and Harry to follow him. One by one the campers started taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire.

"Offerings to the gods, they like the smell," Luke said as he dropped a cluster of fat grapes into the fire and muttered, "Hermes."

Percy stepped forward and thought for a moment, then scraped a big slice of brisket into the fire. Harry stepped forward and picked up a large, shiny, red apple that was on his plate.

'Not as impressive as a Basilisk… but here you go, whoever you are,' Harry thought as he dropped the apple into the fire which quickly burnt up. When they returned to their tables and finished eating Chiron stomped his hoof again to get everyone's attention.

A man sitting at table twelve stood up with a loud sigh. He was a big man with a trimmed beard, black hair and wearing a leopard pattern shirt. His nose was a little red.

"That's Mr. D, he runs the camp with Chiron," Luke whispered to Harry.

"Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five currently holds the laurels." the man said in a bored tone.

Clarisse and her friends cheered from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations I suppose. Also, I should tell you that we have two new campers today, Peter Johnson and Harvey Potts."

Chiron murmured something to him.

"Er, yes, right… Percy Jackson and Harry Potter," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Huzzah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered as the campers made their way to the amphitheater where the kids from the Apollo cabin led a sing along. Everyone but Percy and Harry sung since they didn't know the words to any of the songs, so they just sat there and listened, while toasting marshmallows.

Later in the evening when the campfire was going out, a horn sounded again indicating bedtime, the campers filed into their cabins and got into bed, or sleeping bags for the overflow in the Hermes cabin.

An hour later Harry was still awake, he figured it was portkey lag again. Or it could be that the Hermes Cabin was cramped, hot and every time he tried to stretch he'd end up almost hitting another camper. With a sigh Harry stood up and rolled up his sleeping bag, tiptoeing around the sleeping campers he walked out of the cabin and into the common area. Then he lay down next to the campfire which seemed to be roaring 24/7 and used his sleeping bag as a pillow, while he looked up at the stars.

"Hello," a soft voice startled him, Harry looked over and saw the same young girl he'd seen that afternoon poking the fire, somehow he hadn't noticed her sitting there before.

"Hi," Harry said lamely. "Shouldn't you be in bed?" Harry asked the girl.

"Shouldn't you?" she asked back. Harry realized how hypocritical he'd sounded.

"Heh, yeah I guess so, sorry," Harry said with a grin. "I'm Harry," he said with an outstretched hand.

The girl shook it. "Hestia."

The two sat in companionable silence for while before she spoke again. "So, why are you out here instead of the warm cabin?" Hestia asked.

"Too cramped, I like my space," Harry answered honestly, ever since he'd moved out of the cupboard under the stairs at Privet Drive he'd hated being cramped without room to stretch. It wasn't quite claustrophobia but it still bugged him. After looking at the stars for almost half an hour he slowly slipped into a peaceful sleep.

**XXXXX**

Over the next few days Harry settled into a routine. During the mornings he learned Ancient Greek with Percy from Annabeth. As it turns out, all demigods have a natural talent in reading and speaking Ancient Greek which often manifested as dyslexia, which fortunately Harry was lucky enough to not have, he could just imagine the crap he would have gotten from Snape over it if he did. The rest of the day they'd rotate through outdoor activities. Harry was good at horseback riding and wrestling, but he was terrible at metalwork and gardening, he found he was generally quite good at the combat oriented, leadership and animal related tasks. He was also decent at canoeing but that was mainly thanks to Percy's help. Harry surprised everyone when he beat the Wood Nymph instructors at foot racing, which made them pout at him all day. In the evenings after dinner, he practiced his magic for a couple hours until it was time for bed. He found himself sleeping out by the bonfire every night and he conversed with Hestia often. Imagine his surprise when he found out she was a goddess!

On Thursday, Luke began teaching Percy and Harry how to use a sword. After they learned the basics the two learners spent most of the day sparring. Then the next day Harry tried the climbing wall for the first time, the lava running down the wall unnerved him a little at first. That afternoon he had a little encounter with Clarisse.

"Father's orders still stand; you need to be made an example of Pot-head. Hope you're looking forward to Capture the Flag later, I know I am" she said with a sneer and intentionally bumped him as she walked off. Harry simply ignored her and went on with his training.

That night after dinner it was time for capture the flag. After they finished dinner campers cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a blue silk banner, it was about three meters long with a painting of an owl over an olive tree. On the opposite side Clarisse and her buddies ran in holding a red banner with a painting of a bloody spear and a boars head.

"Do Athena and Ares always lead the teams?" Harry asked Luke.

"Not always, but often. Don't worry though; we're not on Ares' side. For this match Hermes has made an alliance with Athena and Apollo. We'll be against Ares, Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus."

Harry knew this was fair, Hermes cabin had more than twice the amount of campers as the other cabins and Apollo was the second biggest.

"HEROES," Chiron announced, "You all know the rules. The creek is the boundary… the entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed but not bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" he spread his arms and the tables were suddenly covered in with equipment: helmets, swords, spears, shields.

"Whoa, we're really supposed to use this stuff?" Percy asked. Luke looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Unless you want to be skewered by your friends in cabin five, yeah, I'd recommend it."

Harry felt like he was suiting up for a Quidditch game, instead of the heavy bronze armor everyone else was strapping to themselves, Harry found a set of black leather armor that fit snugly, similar the things he wore for his matches to protect him from bludgers but still allowed him to move freely and didn't weigh him down. He quickly strapped the armor on, covering his forearms, shoulders, torso and shins. When it came to weapons he ensured his wand holster was tight on his right forearm and his wand was secure and then he pulled out the ornate handle and smiled as it shifted into the beautiful silvery sword.

Percy gasped, "Whoa Harry, that sword is cool!"

Luke nodded in agreement, "Where did you get that Harry?"

Harry shrugged, "I found it during the fight with Python, it was laying in the van and when I grabbed it, it shifted into the sword and it felt… right, like I could do anything with this sword in my hand."

Luke nodded, "Most likely a gift from your godly parent then."

Noticing he was not wearing a helmet, Luke handed Harry a strip of blue cloth which Harry then tied to his upper right arm.

"Blue team forward!" Annabeth called out, the team cheered and followed her down the path to the south woods.

They went out into the woods and took up positions to protect the flag. Percy and Harry would be holding the rear as they were the least experienced. Their job was to patrol the creek near the flag and protect it while the rest of the team would assault the red positions in an effort to take their flag.

A short while later, Harry was walking silently along the creek a short distance from the flag, his senses on alert as he carefully studied the area around him. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of battle nearby. Sword firmly in hand, Harry raced back to where Percy was and where the sound of battle was coming from.

Harry frowned as up ahead he saw Clarisse at the creek near the blue flag, fighting Percy and winning, her friends surrounded them. Percy knocked one away with his shield and sheared off his red plume with his sword. Angrily, Clarisse charged at Percy with her spear, Percy caught the tip of the spear between the top of his shield and the flat of his sword and snapped the spear like a twig.

"You idiot!" she screamed in anger, "You corpse-breathed worm!"

Having enough of her insults and attitude Harry charged forward. At the last second he leapt and was a bit surprised when he flipped completely over the Ares camper who had been turning to face him. Harry landed easily and spun, clubbing the Ares camper on the back of the head with the handle of his sword, dropping him like a rock. He then turned and engaged two more while Percy engaged Clarisse, who had pulled out a sword to replace her broken spear.

Harry was in his element, the sword in his hand was a blur as he intercepted and blocked the two Ares fighters many incoming strikes and he easily dodged their attempts to kick and trip him. Finally, he made solid contact with one and spun her sword out of her hand and stepped forward slamming the hilt of his sword into her face knocking her about five feet back to lay on the ground unconscious. He then turned, twirling the sword easily and squared off against the remaining Ares fighter. As they traded blows, Harry again seemed able to easily anticipate and avoid or block every attack. Ducking under a particularly wild swing, he spun and swept the Ares camper's feet knocking him on his back, his sword skittering away as he lay there, trying to catch his breath. Harry spun easily to his feet and put the point of his sword at the camper's throat.

Meanwhile, Percy's battle had not gone so well, as the extremely angry Clarisse had unleashed all of that fury on the younger camper. After a few minutes of battle, Percy lay on the ground, bleeding in several places, barely managing to hold onto his sword. He managed to get to his hands and knees and began to crawl toward the creek, instinctively knowing he needed to be in the water. He was rewarded with a vicious kick to the ribs that probably would have resulted in a punctured lung if not for his armor. He continued crawling, in agony, but unwilling, unable to stop. Clarisse, believing the boy defeated, turned and began crowing her victory. Finally, Percy made it to the creek, he could feel the water flow up and over his body, his wounds healing as the water touched them. He also felt a massive surge of strength and energy. He slowly climbed to his feet. Then he turned towards the loudly crowing Clarisse.

"Shut up Clarisse! You haven't won yet. Are you sure Ares is your dad? Cause for a Daughter of the God of War, you suck at fighting."

The girl stopped her crowing and slowly turned, her face morphing into a hideous expression of fury, "What did you say… Prissy?"

Percy smirked, his confidence restored now that he stood in the water, "I said, you haven't won yet, was I not loud enough, or do I need to spell it out in small easy words so even you can understand?"

A gasp went through the growing assembly of campers. The Daughter of Ares gave a cry of fury and charged. Percy calmly met her and deflected her strike while tripping her. He stood there calmly and when she looked up at him in shock, he merely raised an eyebrow and smirked. Screaming in rage she surged to her feet and the two exchanged a furious series of strikes and parries, Percy seemed easily able to hold her off now. Finally, as she stumbled away after another mad charge, he gestured and massive column of water shot out of the creek striking the angry girl and flinging her 20 feet to hit a tree… hard. She slid down it, unconscious.

Harry turned to witness the end of Percy's battle with Clarisse and suddenly, he could feel… Harry charged forward and knocked Percy away just as a massive bolt of lightning shot from the heavens and instinctively, Harry's arm shot up and the bolt connected with his sword and Harry spun flinging out the arm, sword held firmly and the lightning shot out and vaporized a large boulder 30 feet away. Breathing hard, Harry turned causing another gasp to run through the assembled campers, his eyes glowed and small arcs of electricity rippled up and down his form. Finally, the electricity subsided and his eyes dimmed to normal.

Chiron appeared out of the woods and blew his horn, the game was over and the blue team had won.

"Not bad at all heroes," a voice came from next to Harry and Percy, "How did you both learn to fight like that?" the air shimmered and Annabeth appeared taking off a baseball cap that had obviously made her invisible.

"You set us up!" Percy accused. "You put us here so Clarisse and the Ares kids would come after us while you sent Luke around to flank."

"That was the plan and it worked too, "she responded.

Suddenly the celebrating stopped when a loud howl echoed through the woods followed by a loud growling.

"Stand ready! My bow!" Chiron shouted.

There, on the rocks above them stood a black hound the size of a rhino, it red eyes glaring at them and dagger sized fangs bared. It wasn't nearly as big as Fluffy, but it unnerved Harry none the less. The hound leapt at them and slammed into both Harry and Percy knocking them to the ground and slashing at Percy's armor with its claws. It quickly stood, but before it could attack again a few dozen arrows suddenly sprouted from its neck and it dropped dead at their feet and burst into golden dust.

"That was a Hellhound! From the fields of punishment," Annabeth said in shock. "They don't… they're not supposed to…"

"Someone must have summoned it," Chiron interrupted, "someone inside the camp."

"It was Harry!" Clarisse shouted. "He knows magic, he must have summoned it!"

Several of the campers looked at Harry suspiciously.

Suddenly the camper's attention was on something else, something floating over Percy's head.

"Um, Percy," Harry said pointing at it. Percy looked up at a green holographic trident floating above his head.

"Your father… this is really not good," Annabeth murmured.

"It is determined," Chiron announced stepping forward. All around them, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin reluctantly.

"My father?" Percy asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god."

Just as everybody were getting to their feet trying to process what they'd just learned, a blinding light flashed behind Harry, he spun around with sword in hand ready to fight. He quickly realized that the light wasn't coming from behind him; it was coming from above him.

There was a collective gasp and everyone took a step back and knelt again hurriedly, even Chiron. Above Harry's head was a shimmering golden holographic lightning bolt.

In a shaky voice Chiron spoke again, "It is determined. Zeus, Lord of the Sky, Honor, Justice and Lightning. Hail Harry Potter, son of the King of the Gods." Overhead, the sky rumbled and lightning danced across the clouds.

(A/N: Harry replaces Jason Grace, no Lost Hero series)

**XXXXX**

**Chapter 3: Harry and Percy's Excellent Adventure**

The next few days were not easy for the two youngsters. Everyone in camp stared at them and tended to avoid them. With the only exceptions being Annabeth, who continued to tutor them both in Ancient Greek and Luke who continued their sword training. Harry also increased his magic practice, working on his first and second year charms, transfiguration and DADA spell work, as well as working his way through a book on Dueling and another on Occlumency and he had plans to start on the Animagus book he had picked up later in the summer. He also completed his Hogwarts summer homework and had chosen his electives (Runes and Care of Magical Creatures) and sent them off in a letter to Professor McGonagall. Harry and Percy hung out together a lot as most everyone else seemed to be afraid of them. Percy also introduced Harry to Grover, his best friend.

Grover had been Percy's protector until he'd gotten to camp. When Harry mentioned his own protector Grover made a face like he'd swallowed something sour.

"Sid!" Grover said the name with disdain. Sid apparently had a bad reputation among his fellow satyrs. "Sid's been sent to escort six demigods to camp in total, including you and you're the only one who actually made it alive," Grover explained. "Whenever there's an attack he abandons his charge to save himself, he's a disgrace to all Satyrs!"

After that, having nothing better to do, Harry went to Cabin One. Meeting Grover reminded him he had yet to hear from his own friends. Ron he expected to be lazy, but not Hermione. So, he pulled out some materials and composed a letter to her. It was time to tell her how he felt, life was just too short not to. He knew she probably didn't feel that way about him, after all… he was just Harry and she was so amazing, she could have anyone. Finishing his letter, he signed it and sent it off with Hedwig. Then feeling a bit tired, he lay down for a nap.

**XXXXX**

Harry woke from his afternoon nap to a knock on his cabin door, rolling easily out of bed he found Percy and Annabeth waiting for him.

"Mr. D's back, he and Chiron want to see you and Percy up at the Big House."

Harry followed them up to the Big House. Inside, Mr. D sat at a table across from Chiron in his fake wheelchair and Grover, they all held a hand of playing cards.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up from his cards. "Our little celebrities…"

Harry resisted the urge to call him a Greasy Git. The similarity of their speech patterns and their undisguised disdain for Harry Potter was simply uncanny.

"Don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old barnacle beard is your father," Mr. D said to Percy before turning to Harry. "And as for you, you may be my half-brother, but don't expect me to give you any special treatment either. If it were up to me I would simply cause both of you to erupt into flames at the molecular level. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble," Mr. D said with a glare at Harry. "But Chiron thinks that would be against my mission at this cursed camp. To keep you brats from harm," Dionysus continued with a sigh.

"Mr. D, spontaneous combustion is a form of harm," Chiron spoke up.

Harry hadn't spoken to Mr. D before now so he hadn't realized it, but this man had an aura about him, similar to the aura he'd felt when he'd met Hecate. Then he put together what he knew about Mr. D and compared it to what he'd learned from Annabeth's books, leopard pattern shirt, sat at table 12 during dinner. Mr. D… Dionysus, the god of wine and madness.

"I haven't tried to cause any trouble, sir," Harry said carefully, wanting to defend himself, but also not wishing to anger the god. "And I don't expect any special treatment."

"Oh is that so? In the Hermes cabin you didn't follow the rules, instead of staying in the cabin to sleep as you were supposed to, you snuck out and slept in the commons area, too good for the cabin were you?" Mr. D argued.

"It was too cramped in the Hermes cabin, it was either sleep in the commons area or hang a hammock between the Zeus and Hera cabins," Harry joked with a shrug.

Chiron dropped his cards, Grover choked on one of his own cards he was chewing and Dionysus barked out a laugh, almost as if he'd like to see that.

"You mentioned Harry's dad and my dad fighting… they're fighting over something that was stolen aren't they?" Percy asked shocking Chiron.

"How do you know about that?" Chiron asked cautiously.

"I've been having dreams, an eagle was fighting a horse, the eagle spoke and it yelled 'Give it back'."

"I knew it," Grover mumbled as he started to pick up the cards off the floor and subtlety shove them into his mouth.

"That's what we wanted to talk to you about Percy, every winter and summer solstice the Olympians have a big meeting up on Olympus… during the last solstice, Zeus and Poseidon got into an argument… again. You are correct, Percy, when the meeting was over Zeus realized something was missing. To be precise, his lightning bolt."

Percy laughed nervously, "His what?"

"Do not take this lightly!" Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil covered zigzag you'd see at a second grade play. I'm talking about a four foot long cylinder of high grade celestial bronze capped on both ends with god level explosives. Zeus's master bolt, the symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon forged by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that…"

"Ok we get it!" Harry snapped, "Would you just get to the point, what does this have to do with Percy and me?"

"Well, gods cannot usurp each other's symbols of power, it goes against their highest laws, but a demigod could. Poseidon is Zeus's biggest rival so Zeus immediately suspected him; he believes that Poseidon convinced a human hero to take it for him. Now that you've been claimed by Poseidon as his son, Zeus believes he has his thief, that _you_ snuck into Olympus during the winter solstice and stole the bolt," Chiron said to Percy.

"What?" Percy asked on shock. "But, I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"

Chiron and Grover glanced out a shattered window at storm clouds spreading over the valley.

"Um, Percy? We don't use the c-word to describe the lord of the sky," Grover said nervously.

"Poseidon and Zeus have been arguing for months, threatening war. Zeus has demanded the return of the master bolt by the summer solstice on the twenty-first of June, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. If neither happens then war will break out, World War Three."

There was a clap of thunder and it started to rain outside, campers stopped what they were doing and looked at the sky with stunned expressions. It never rained at camp, the magical barriers prevented bad weather.

"So I have to find the stupid bolt and return it to Zeus?" Percy asked.

"What better peace offering then to have Poseidon's son return Zeus's property?"

"I'm going too," Harry said as he stood up.

Chiron studied him for a moment before nodding. "Very well, I can see there's no stopping you, both you and Percy shall lead this quest, you must consult the Oracle," Chiron said and pointed towards a trapdoor on the top floor. "Go upstairs boys, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

Together, Percy and Harry walked up four flights of stairs and arrived at the trapdoor; Percy grasped the cord hanging from the door and pulled. The door swung down and a wooden ladder clattered into place. They tried to ignore the smell and climbed.

"Snakes," Harry muttered recognizing the smell, "I'm starting to hate snakes."

The attic was filled with Greek Hero junk, armor stands covered with cobwebs, rusted shields. Harry immediately noticed a large, dusty snake head mounted on the wall, only it had horns and a full set of shark-like teeth. The plaque read: HYDRA HEAD NO. 1, WOODSTOCK, NY, 1969.

The most gruesome thing in the attic sat on a stool near a window, one that hadn't shattered for some reason. It was a mummy, a female human body shriveled to a husk, she wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces and a headband over long black hair.

Suddenly she sat up making Harry jump back startled; she opened her mouth and green mist poured out of it coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like snakes.

In Harry's head a voice echoed. 'I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach seekers and ask.'

Harry had a feeling it wasn't the Mummy speaking, it was the mist. The mummified body was just a container for something else. Percy seemed to have heard the Oracle speak too because he stepped forward nervously and asked. "What is my destiny?"

Harry wanted to snort at how corny he sounded, but he didn't have a chance as the mist swirled around them and took shapes. Four men were sitting around a table playing poker and smoking. From the look on Percy's face he recognized them.

"**You shall go west and face the god who has turned**," Poker Man number one said in the same raspy voice of the Oracle.

"**You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned**," Poker man number two said.

"**You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend**," Poker man number three.

"**You shall fail to save what matters most in the end**," the last one said.

The four people dissolved back into green smoke and slithered like a snake towards the mummy, with a lunge it shot back into her mouth and disappeared.

"Wait!" Percy cried, "What do you mean? What friend? What will we fail to save? Who will die?"

The mummy slumped back onto her stool, as if she'd never moved; their audience with the Oracle was over.

Harry and Percy made their way back downstairs and slumped into a pair of chairs across from Chiron, Annabeth and Grover.

"Well?" Chiron asked looked at them expectedly.

"She said we'd retrieve what was stolen," Percy answered vaguely.

Grover sat forward chewing excitedly on an empty Diet Coke can. "That's great!"

"What did the oracle say exactly? This is important," Chiron pressed.

"She… she said we would go west and face the god who had turned. We'd retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned." Percy stopped there, he didn't want to tell them the next two lines. Neither did Harry, they would be betrayed and fail to save what mattered most, not exactly prime pep-talk material. But Chiron didn't look satisfied.

"I see… Harry, Percy, the Oracle's words often hold double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events have come to pass."

"Okay, so where do we go? Who's this god in the west?" Percy asked.

"Well boys, if Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who would stand to gain?" Chiron asked. "Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow more powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

"Hades," Harry realized, he'd read about the lord of the dead in a book recently. When the Titan war was over Zeus, Poseidon and Hades had divided the earth, Zeus got the skies, Poseidon got the oceans and Hades was tricked into taking the underworld.

Chiron nodded, "The Lord of the Dead is the only logical possibility at this time."

Grover's mouth was hanging open in shock, a small piece of chewed up tin can fell out of his mouth. "Whoa, whoa… wait. Wh-What?" Grover stuttered out, he reminded Harry for just a moment of Sid.

"Remember, a Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded Grover. "She watched him until she was sure of who he was and then tried to kill him. Furies only obey one master… Lord Hades."

"The Hellhound," Harry realized, "Summoned from the Fields of Punishment in the underworld, which is Hades' domain."

"Yes, but he couldn't have sent it here, it had to have been summoned from within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. One thing is clear, Harry and Percy must go to the underworld, retrieve the Master Bolt and return it to Olympus before the summer solstice, you may choose two others to accompany you," Chiron explained.

"What? The number of people allowed to go on a quest is restricted to three people," Annabeth said in surprise.

"Technically, the rules say the leader can choose two others to accompany them, in this situation we have two leaders, thus you can each choose one person to accompany you," Chiron explained.

"Ok, how 'bout it G-man?" Percy asked Grover. The satyr looked indecisive, probably trying to weigh the pros vs. the cons.

"Grover, if you don't want to go I won't force you," Percy assured.

"Oh, no… it's just that satyrs and underground places… well…," he took a deep breath and stood up. "You saved my life Percy. If… if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down," Percy looked relieved, Harry was smiling, he was glad to see that satyrs weren't all cowards like Sid.

Annabeth looked nervous, like she was trying to decide whether or not to say something. Harry knew that she desperately wanted to go on a quest but a line in the Prophesy echoed in Harry's head, you shall be betrayed by a friend. Then he remembered what Chiron said about double meanings in the Prophesy.

"Annabeth, do you want to come?" Harry asked.

"Sure, I guess," Annabeth answered with a shrug as if it didn't matter to her either way, but the twitching at the corner of her mouth told another story.

"You don't have to come if you don't want too, I'm sure Luke would…" Percy started to say, thinking that Annabeth really didn't want to come.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest Seaweed Brain," Annabeth interrupted him. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world. I'm the best person to keep you from messing it up."

"I suppose you have a plan, Wise Girl?" Percy asked, Annabeth's cheeks colored. Seeing a possible argument brewing, Chiron cut in.

"Excellent. It's almost dark now; you can leave first thing in the morning. Argus can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you'll be on your own. "

**XXXXX**

Harry woke up to a Basilisk looming over him.

"AHH!" Harry yelled and tried to scramble away, he fell off the edge of his bed and hit the ground with a thud. The Basilisk didn't go after him. When Harry looked up again he realized why.

Mounted on the wall over the head of bed, was a massive Basilisk's head, stuffed and displayed on a shield shaped plaque, its eye sockets empty and mouth open, displaying its massive fangs. It was the same Basilisk he'd killed; he'd never forget it. Harry took deep breaths trying to calm down.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Harry asked the empty room. That's when he noticed something else. On the table next to his bed was a large blue-gray box wrapped with a gold bow. Harry stood up and walked to it, he turned over a cardboard tag on the bow.

_To Harry, from Dad_

Harry was stunned, for years he'd dreamed of getting a present with those exact words, now that it was happening his mind went blank. Not wanting to stand in the shadow of the Basilisk's head he picked up the box and walked to a table on the opposite side of the cabin. Untying the bow he opened the box.

Inside was something made of dark green leather. Unrolling it, it appeared to be a baggy, high collared short sleeved shirt with a zipper running from mid-chest up to the collar. Looking back at the box he noticed that the shirt had been covering a few other items. A couple rolled up pairs of black cargo pants, a few pairs of boxers, a few pairs of socks, a black multi-pocket vest and a pair of dark green, combat style boots of the same leather as the shirt and finally a mid-sized green backpack. Next to them lay a thick roll of American money and a brown leather pouch with maybe twenty large gold coins inside it.

Realizing he had to get ready to leave, he started getting dressed in his new clothes. The leather like shirt went on easily and when he zipped it up, it shrank to fit like a second skin. He then put on his cargo pants, boots and finally the black vest. When he slipped on the vest he noticed one last thing he'd missed in the box, a small case. Flipping it open he found a pair of contact lenses. Shrugging, he took off his old glasses and carefully put the lenses in, there was a short sharp pain and then his vision immediately cleared up and was much, much better than it ever was before, he'd never even considered that his glasses were out of date; he'd had them so long.

There was a small note in the box.

_Magical contact lenses, bond to eyes upon insertion, never need to be removed. Auto-cleaning, auto-focusing, auto-night vision, auto-polarization for bright light, protective (weather, magic, etc.)_

_Enjoy, Dad_

Slipping the money, the pouch of gold coins and his shrunken trunk into the various pockets on the vest, he then slid the handle of his sword into his right front pants pocket and verified his wand holster and wand were still secure on his left forearm and willed them undetectable by anyone but himself. He then shoved the remaining clothes into his backpack and slung it across his right shoulder.

With one last look around the cabin Harry walked into the commons area and closed the door behind him. As he stepped out, Harry spotted Annabeth checking her pack.

"You ready to go?" Harry asked.

Annabeth turned and did a double take looking at Harry's new clothes.

"What happened to you?" Annabeth asked sounding slightly impressed.

"Woke up this morning with a box of goodies next to my bed, from my father," Harry explained.

Harry and Annabeth walked up to the large pine tree that used to be his half-sister, Thalia, Daughter of Zeus. Percy was standing by the tree with Grover and Chiron. As they walked up Harry noticed some of the female campers paying extra attention to him, especially the daughters of Aphrodite. And a few of the nymphs.

When they reached the tree Percy was admiring a bronze sword.

"That sword has a long and tragic history that we need not get into," Chiron said to Percy. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

"Riptide", Percy translated.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron cautioned, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course. But, this sword wouldn't hurt them in any case."

Both Harry and Percy looked at the blade and wondered the same thing. How could it not?

"That blade is made of Celestial Bronze. It is deadly to monsters but will pass through mortals like an illusion. They are simply not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you, as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."

"Good to know," Percy mumbled as he placed what looked like pen cap on the tip of the blade, immediately the sword shrunk down and changed into a ballpoint pen.

Chiron seemed to finally notice Harry and Annabeth's presence. More importantly, he noticed Harry's new appearance.

"New clothes, Harry?" Chiron asked curiously.

"I got a gift package from my father this morning, it had the bag, these clothes, some money and contact lenses," Harry said.

Chiron nodded and handed him a messenger bag with spare underwear, socks, toiletries, a few bottles of water and some apples. Harry switched everything in the bag over to his backpack and even though the bag seemed too small, everything easily fit and Harry suspected it had a space expansion charm on the inside. He handed the empty messenger bag back to Chiron.

Percy had a backpack with a change of clothes, one hundred dollars and twenty golden drachmas that the camp store had loaned him.

Grover wore a pair of fake feet and jeans to pass as human, he had a bag stuffed with apples and tin cans and in his pocket was a set of reed pipes.

Annabeth was taking her magic Yankees cap that could turn her invisible, she had previously mentioned it was a present from her mother for her twelfth birthday. She also had a bag with a change of clothes, some money and drachmas and she also carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve.

Chiron moved to stand near Harry, "Harry, before you leave, that sword you carry… it was originally owned by Perseus, another son of Zeus and the hero who defeated the Kraken in ancient Greece, it was a gift to him from your father. It will serve you well, as it did Perseus."

Finally Chiron passed Harry, Percy and Annabeth each a flask of Nectar and an airtight bag of ambrosia squares.

"To be used only in an emergency," Chiron reminded them.

It was god food after all, it would heal almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very feverish. An overdose would have the same effect as it would on a mortal.

Just as they were about to leave, Luke came running up the hill holding a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey, glad I caught you."

Annabeth blushed, just like she always did when Luke was around.

"Just wanted to say good luck and I thought you could use these," he handed Percy the sneakers.

"Maia!" Luke said, suddenly the sneakers sprouted white wings and started fluttering.

"Awesome!" Grover said making Luke smile.

"Those served me well when I was on my quest. They were a gift from my Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days…" his expression turned sad. "Anyway, good luck, kill some monsters for me, okay?"

Luke shook Percy and Harry's hand, patted Grover between his horns and gave Annabeth a goodbye hug; she looked like she was about pass out. After Luke was gone Percy turned to Annabeth.

"You're hyperventilating," he said with a smile.

"Am not!" Annabeth snapped at him and stomped down the side of the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road, Argus was waiting for them.

"I'm not going to be able to use these am I?" Percy asked Chiron holding up the flying sneakers.

"Luke meant well Percy, but the sky is Zeus's domain, it would not be wise for you to use them," Chiron said with a sad look.

Percy looked at Harry and getting a very subtle head shake, he gave them to a very excited Grover, who slipped them on and said, "Maia," causing the shoes to sprout wings and take off down the hill, dragging a distressed Grover behind them. "Ahhhhh!"

"Practice," Chiron called down to him, "You just need practice!"

Harry was looking out over the camp, taking in the view of the Big House, the twelve cabins and the Long Island Sound. Harry had truly enjoyed his time there and hoped he would come back soon. For now, he had a quest to concentrate on; hopefully by the end of it he'd have some answers to his many questions.

**XXXXX**

**Chapter 4: Road trip**

It took all day to drive from Long Island back to Manhattan. As they drove, the quartet talked. Annabeth, Percy and Grover were very interested in Harry's adventures in Hogwarts.

He didn't tell them about his title, 'Boy-Who-Lived' because he didn't want them to treat him any differently, because he was famous.

At some point Annabeth asked him about the Basilisk he'd killed, he'd started telling the story hours ago and was still telling it, the three were listening with rapt attention.

"… when we saw the spiders walking in a straight line we remembered what Hagrid had mentioned, 'Follow the Spiders'. So me and Ron grabbed my invisibility cloak and followed them… right into the Forbidden Forest," Annabeth looked disturbed at the mention of spiders.

"We had followed them for maybe an hour when we walked into a clearing covered in cobwebs, then we saw something moving. It was an Acromantula." the three looked confused.

"What's an Acromantula?" Percy asked.

"Picture a black tarantula, the size of this SUV," Harry revealed.

Annabeth's eyes were wide open and her lower lip was quivering, "You're joking right?"

"I wish," Harry answered with a sigh.

The story was cut short as the SUV came to a stop near a bus station. Argus helped Harry to unload their bags while Percy and Annabeth went to buy four tickets west.

Once they were all together again and had seen Argus off, Harry asked "So where're we heading?"

"We have to head west but we don't know how far, we got four tickets to Denver," Annabeth explained.

"Sorry, I don't know all that much about America. How far away is Denver?" Harry asked feeling a little embarrassed.

"Right now we're on the east coast of the United States, Denver is a city in Colorado, a little over half way across the country," Annabeth explained, she knew Harry was from England. "It'll take us a few days to get there."

Harry was used to long trips across country; the Hogwarts Express took most of the day to travel from Kings Cross station to Hogsmeade station. This was a little different, the trip would take _days_.

The bus arrived and they climbed aboard. Just as they started getting comfortable the air in the bus changed, Annabeth's eyes widened in shock and placed her hand on Percy's leg.

"Percy," Annabeth whispered and nodded her head towards the last group of passengers to board. At the front was an old woman, she wore a creased velvet dress, lace gloves and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face.

"Mrs. Dodds," Percy whispered looking startled and scrunched down in his seat trying to hide from the old woman.

"Who is she?" Harry asked.

"My Algebra teacher," Percy answered as if it explained everything.

Harry thought about it for a moment, he tried to imagine running into Snape in the middle of a shop, lining up to buy a newspaper and a bag of crisps. He simply couldn't imagine it, teachers don't and shouldn't exist to students outside of school. However, Percy looked more disturbed than he should.

Behind the old woman Harry spotted two more, they looked identical to Mrs. Dodds right down to the dresses. The only difference Harry could see was the color of their hats, one purple and the other green.

The creepy teacher triplets sat in the front row right behind the driver. The two sitting at the aisle crossed their legs blocking anybody from crossing. The bus pulled out of the station and started weaving through the streets of Manhattan.

"She didn't stay dead long," Percy said, his voice quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."

"I said if you were lucky," Annabeth answered. "You're obviously not."

"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales! All three Kindly Ones!"

"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously trying to calm Grover down.

"Wait, what's going on?" Harry asked, getting frustrated. "Who's dead? Who are they?"

"Mrs. Dodds was planted in my school to watch me, then a few weeks ago she attacked me, she was the first monster I killed," Percy answered franticly.

Harry remembered this story, about the first monster Percy had killed, a Fury. All three of them, Grover had said.

"Bloody hell!" Harry cursed.

"The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows," Annabeth suggested.

"They don't open," Grover moaned.

"A back exit?" Annabeth suggested hopefully. They all turned around and saw that there wasn't one. Looking back towards the front Harry noticed they were heading towards a tunnel.

"They won't attack us with so many witnesses around," Percy said uncertainly. "Will they?"

"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded him. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."

"They'll still see three old ladies killing us, won't they?" Percy asked.

"Percy, we can't count on the Mortals for help," Annabeth snapped at him.

The bus hit the Lincoln tunnel and went dark, the only source of light camp from lights on the floor of the bus. Without the rain battering on the roof it became eerily quiet.

Mrs. Dodds suddenly stood up and announced to the entire bus in a flat voice. "I need to use the restroom."

"So do I," said the second sister.

"So do I," said the third sister.

The Furies all started walking down the aisle towards them.

"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."

"What?"

"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away." Annabeth explained.

"But you guys…" Percy looked conflicted, he didn't want to leave his friends. Harry pulled out his trunk and quickly enlarged it and pulled out his invisibility cloak. Then shrinking it again, he stuffed the trunk back in his pocket and pulled Annabeth and Grover to him and swept the cloak over them.

Percy gasped, "Where'd you go?"

Harry whispered, "We're still here, put the cap on Percy!"

Percy complied and disappeared as he sat the cap on his head.

Harry spoke again softly, "Percy, carefully try to make your way to the front. We have to get off this bus quickly!"

Mrs. Dodds stopped for a moment and sniffed the air, Harry worried for a moment that she'd find Percy. But she quickly stopped, sniffing and stalked towards them. When they reached their row they suddenly changed, their bodies shriveled into leathery brown hag like bodies with bats wings, their hands and feet were cloven with long claws. The handbags they had each held transformed into fiery whips. With a lash of their whips they started hissing. They stalked on, sniffing every so often. Finally, they passed by enough for the three to slip out and they shuffled down the aisle as quickly as possible.

Suddenly the bus swerved hard to the left. Everybody yelled as they were thrown to the right and the force of the turn smashed all three of the Furies into the windows. The bus continued to swerve left and right erratically, Harry saw the driver struggling with the wheel as if somebody else was…

"Percy," Harry whispered, realizing Percy's insane idea. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing a shower of sparks a mile behind them. The bus reached the end of the tunnel and shot back out into the daylight. Somehow the three had stayed on their feet and stayed together under the cloak and quickly continued forward. Just then the bus's emergency brakes activated and they slid towards the front of the bus. Everyone hit the ground after flying forwards a few feet. The bus skidded uncontrollably, spun a full circle and finally crashed into some trees that seemed to come out of nowhere. The emergency lights turned on, the door flew open and the passengers started stampeding off the bus. The Furies finally got back to their feet and hissed in anger, still looking and sniffing around.

The three managed to slip out and made their way away from the bus, looking around for Percy. Finally, they saw him, hiding behind a tree ahead of them and hurried to join him. Reunited, the four slipped away into the woods and once they had put enough distance that he thought it safe, Harry pulled his wand, "Lumos." His wand tip lit a with a bright white light and he lit the way ahead, wand in his left hand, sword in his right, as they continued on.

**XXXXX**

An hour later the four were traipsing through the woods on the New Jersey riverbank. The glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind them and the smell of the Hudson River in their noses.

The adrenaline had worn off from their battle and the shock of what had just happened was catching up to them. Grover was shivering and braying. "Three Kindly Ones, all three at once."

"Come on, the further away we get the better," Annabeth said.

They continued on, none of them eager to encounter the Furies a second time.

They chatted quietly about what they could do to get out of their current predicament and continue on their quest. Harry was about to say something when his nose caught a smell, his mouth watered and his stomach rumbled. "Um… do you guys smell food?"

Percy took an experimental whiff and licked his lips, "Yeah, burgers."

"Over there," Grover said, pointing at a light through the trees.

The four walked quickly through the woods until they emerged near a deserted two lane road. On the other side was a closed down gas station, a billboard for a movie from the '80s and an open business which was the source of light and the good smell. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by dozens of statues.

Percy and Annabeth squinted their eyes at the neon sign trying to make out what it said. While at camp Annabeth had told him that most demigods were dyslexic and had ADHD. The dyslexia was due to their minds being hard wired for ancient Greek, the ADHD was caused by their inborn battle reflexes. Harry was lucky enough to have both the ability to read Greek and have the reflexes, without having to suffer dyslexia or ADHD.

"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium," Harry read out loud.

Percy was the first to cross the street following the smell, Annabeth followed him a few moments later.

"Hey…" Grover warned.

"The lights are on," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."

"Snack bar," Percy muttered hungrily.

"Snack bar," Annabeth agreed.

"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."

Harry agreed with him, there was something creepy about both the statues and the way his two friends were acting. They ignored Grover and walked into the garden. Harry and Grover jogged to catch up to them.

The front garden was filled with statues off all kinds, animals, children, even a satyr which gave Grover the creeps.

"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated like Sid had a habit to. "This looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"

They stopped at the door of the warehouse.

"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."

"Your nose is stuffed up from the Furies," Annabeth said dismissively. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"

"Meat!" Grover said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."

The doors in front of them suddenly swung open by themselves, standing there was a woman wearing a long black gown covering everything but her hands and her head was completely veiled. Harry could just make out the shine of her eyes behind the curtain of black gauze.

Behind the woman Harry heard the sound of dozens of people speaking, having conversations, laughing at jokes. It reminded Harry of dinner in the Great Hall back at Hogwarts, the sounds of the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin tables talking about their day with their friends.

"Children, it is too late to be out all alone," the woman said in a slightly Middle Eastern accent. "Where are your parents?"

"They're… um…" Annabeth started to say.

"We're orphans," Percy blurted out. Harry winced.

"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded strange on her lips, "Oh, my poor dears, surely not!"

"We got separated from our caravan," Percy said. "Our um… our circus, caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten…" Percy kept going as Harry looked at him in disbelief.

"It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion," Harry muttered to Grover who broke a small smile for the first time since the Furies attacked.

"… or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway we're lost," Percy finished lamely. "Is that food I smell?" Percy finished.

"Oh, my dears," the woman said in a tone that reminded Harry for a moment of Mrs. Weasley. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area, I'll have burgers and fries ready in minutes."

Aunty Em turned around and disappeared into the warehouse followed shortly by Percy and Annabeth leaving Harry and Grover standing at the open doors.

"Burgers," Percy said with a smile.

"Burgers," Annabeth agreed.

"Ok, I know that there're plenty of stereotypes about Americans loving their burgers," Harry whispered to Grover. "But this is just ridiculous."

"Something is wrong, really wrong," Grover said as he took a few cautious steps into the warehouse. "This place reeks of Monsters and Percy and Annabeth are acting weird."

Harry and Grover walked to catch up with the others, the Warehouse was filled with more statues, people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. Their eyes seemed to follow them as they moved.

Harry looked around for the people who were making such a din talking, but other than the statues they were seemingly alone.

"Where are those voices coming from?" Harry asked in confusion.

"What voices?" Grover asked in return.

Harry and Grover reached the dining area and saw Percy and Annabeth already sitting at a steel picnic table. Aunty Em was behind a fast food counter complete with a soda fountain, pretzel heater and a nacho cheese dispenser. Harry was hoping that the area would be filled with people, workers taking their break and talking about their day, as that would explain what Harry was hearing. But the only ones in the room were Percy, Annabeth and Aunty Em.

"Please, sit down, dears," Aunty Em called over the sound of sizzling burgers on a grill. "The food will be done in a minute."

Seeing as Harry knew he had their only money he approached the counter.

"How much?" Harry asked but Aunty Em waved him off.

"No, no, child. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."

Harry twitched, he knew he was an orphan but he didn't like being called one so flippantly.

"Thank you," Harry said with a forced smile and joined the others. He sat next to Grover across from Percy and Annabeth.

Moments later Aunty Em appeared with a plastic tray holding large portions of fries, large milkshakes and a cheeseburger each.

This was the first time Harry had such a meal in front of him, Hogwarts didn't serve this kind of food and the Dursleys would never…

"Thank you ma'am," Annabeth said. Harry noticed Aunty Em stiffen, as if Annabeth had done something wrong. She quickly relaxed again.

"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."

Aunty Em disappeared back behind the counter.

"How did she know your name?" Harry asked. Annabeth answered with a shrug as she took a bite of her burger.

Harry looked around for whoever was talking, there should be dozens of people to match the noise but there was no one. He nervously ate his fries.

"Okay, seriously," Harry said in a slight panic. "Can't you guys hear that?"

"I can't hear anything, just a hissing sound, must be the deep fryer," Grover said as he chewed on the grease paper the meal came with.

Harry looked around and his eyes locked on another statue, this one was of a young girl holding an Easter basket. She was very detailed, but something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, maybe even terrified.

Aunty Em had reappeared and noticed Harry looking at the statue.

"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right, always the face."

Annabeth looked startled, like she'd realized something. She placed her almost finished burger down and looked around nervously.

"P-Percy?" she shook his shoulder trying to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster _will_ be waiting." she sounded tense.

"Such beautiful eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those." she reached out to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.

"We really should go."

"Yes!" Grover agreed with her as he swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"

"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to see children, before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A p-pose?" Annabeth asked warily.

"A photograph dear child, I will use it to model a new statue set. They are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on Percy…"

"Sure we can," Percy said irritably, he wasn't happy with Annabeth being rude to Aunty Em after she fed them for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"

"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."

Annabeth didn't like it all, but reluctantly followed. Aunty Em lead the four campers back to the front door, into the garden of statues.

Aunty Em directed them to a park bench next to the stone satyr and guided them into position. Harry noticed that the voices had stopped the din and started whispering rapidly, he was able to make out a few sentences.

§_Ooh, I love thisss part,§ _one voice said.

§_Shh, I'm trying to watch,§ _another said.

§_Pass the popcorn,§ _another said.

"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.

Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please. Everyone? A large smile?"

Harry was thinking about the voices, he felt he was missing something. There something so… _familiar_ about this situation.

Grover turned to look at the satyr statue next to him. "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."

'_Voices only I can hear,' _Harry thought, it started coming together and it wasn't good. _'Snakes… statues, Aunty Em… Aunty M… Perseus… Gray eyes… voices only I can hear… oh SHIT!' _Harry's eyes widened as he saw Aunty M reach for her veil.

"That IS Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped as he too realized how much danger they were really in.

"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted, she'd obviously figured it out too. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and Percy both off the bench. Harry was able to look away just in time and dove behind the bench on his own.

"Medusa," Harry gasped as he scrambled across the floor and flicked his wrist causing his wand to shoot into his hand. "Snakes," Harry spat through gritted teeth. "Why is it always snakes?"

Annabeth appeared next to Harry taking off her hat.

"We mustn't look her in the eyes," Annabeth said.

"I know, I saw the movie in school one time," Harry said quickly.

Meanwhile, Medusa had cornered Percy. "Such a pity to destroy such a handsome young face," she told Percy soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."

"Don't do it Percy!" Annabeth shouted.

"The Grey-Eyed one did this to me, Percy," Medusa said as she glared in their direction. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."

"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth shouted again.

"Silence!" Medusa screeched at her.

"She'll turn us to stone only if we look directly into her eyes?" Harry asked as an idea popped into his head. Annabeth nodded.

"EYES DOWN!" he shouted and stood, eyes closed and pointed his wand up, "LUMOS SOLEM MAXIMA!" he screamed. He was rewarded with a loud screech of pain as his spell essentially created a miniature sun blazing very brightly in the center of the room for a few moments.

"My eyes! Curse you demigod! My eyes!"

Knowing he now only had moments, Harry raced forward flicking his wrist to send his wand back into its holster he pulled the handle out of his pocket and it expanded into his sword and as he closed, eyes locked on the floor, he dodged and jumped as Medusa's tail flailed wildly about until he was close enough. He ducked a swing of her arm and spun, his sword arcing up and across… it slid easily through her neck. Breathing heavily, Harry heard a wet slurping sound followed by a dull thud as her head slid of her neck. Her body exploded into dust and vanished.

§_Ah man, not again….§ _he heard a bunch of voices cry out as the head fell and hit the ground.

Harry grabbed a nearby tablecloth and used it to clean his sword which then shrank back to its handle form and he stowed it back in his pocket. He then used the tablecloth to wrap up the gruesome head of Medusa and sat it to the side for the moment. That done, he then gave the all clear to his friends.

**XXXXX**

**Chapter 5: On the Road Again**

The exhausted demigods and their satyr friend wandered back inside to the eating area and dropped back into their seats were they'd eaten. They were too exhausted to speak.

"So, we have Athena to thank for this monster?" Percy asked remembering what Medusa said about Annabeth's mother.

Annabeth gave Percy an irritated look, "Your dad actually. Medusa was Poseidon's lover. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster."

"Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa?"

The two started trading insults as Grover rubbed his head.

"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine and satyrs don't _get_ migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"

Percy grinned, "Hold on, I saw something earlier… be right back." He then disappeared into the office they had passed through earlier. After a few minutes he came back holding an armful of papers and a cardboard box.

"I found something!" Percy said as he pushed a document in front of Annabeth and Harry. It was an invoice for statues shipped to Hades and Persephone's garden. The Underworld's billing address was 'DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California.'

"Hollywood… that's Los Angeles, right, in California?" Harry asked, Annabeth nodded with a smile, they now knew where they needed to go.

"The entrance to the Underworld is in Hollywood… makes sense I guess, likely more people have sold their souls there than anywhere else on Earth," Harry joked.

Many of the other papers were envelopes and packing slips for **H**ermes **O**vernight **E**xpress, each with a little leather bag attached for coins.

After asking Harry for it, Percy packed Medusa's head into the cardboard box and filled out a delivery slip.

**The Gods**

**Mount Olympus**

**600th Floor**

**Empire State Building**

**New York, NY**

**With Best Wishes**

**PERCY JACKSON**

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."

"He IS impertinent," Harry argued with a smile on his face, "and so am I, put my name down too."

After scribbling down Harry's name under his own, Percy placed a few golden drachmas into the leather pouch. As soon as it was closed there was a sound like a cash register.

§_Road trip! Woo!§ _Came a dozen voices from the box that only Harry could hear. The box floated a few feet into the air and disappeared with a pop.

They spent the next fifteen minutes raiding Medusa's belongings; there wasn't much food despite the misleading snack bar. Harry stayed sat down and looked at the stone girl again. Still frozen, still looking terrified. He'd hoped that killing Medusa might have broken her spell on all these people, but it hadn't. For a moment he wondered if this girl's parents were still out there somewhere looking for her.

Suddenly, Harry had an idea. He looked through the papers Percy had found; he pulled a blank piece of paper, an H-O-E envelope and a pen out and sat down. He quickly scribbled down a letter and shoved it into the envelope. He then filled out a shipping order on the envelope.

**Albus Dumbledore**

**Headmasters Office**

**Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

**Hogsmeade**

**Scotland, United Kingdom**

After slipping a few golden drachmas into the leather pouch, a cash register rang and the envelope floated into the air and disappeared with a pop.

**XXXXX**

That night they were pretty miserable. They camped out in the woods, a hundred meters from the main road. The clearing they stayed in looked like people had been there recently partying, the ground was littered with flattened pop cans and fast food wrappers.

They'd taken some blankets from Aunty Em's but they didn't dare light a fire and attract attention. The Furies and Medusa had been enough for one day. They slept in shifts; Annabeth fell asleep as soon as her head hit her blanket.

Harry laid back and looked up at the sky; he couldn't see many stars, only the brightest and most recognizable ones, Orion, the Big Dipper, as light pollution ruined the view.

"It makes me sad Percy," Grover said from his spot lying on a branch in the nearest tree.

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?" Percy asked.

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky, you can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh, yeah, I guess you'd be an environmentalist."

Grover glared at him. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast… ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?" Percy asked, Harry snorted letting them know he was still awake.

"Pan. P-A-N. The god of the wild," Harry explained as he sat up slightly.

Grover nodded, glad that _somebody_ knew what he was talking about.

"That's why I want a searchers license," Grover said. "The God of the Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago. A sailor off the coast of Ephesus heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom even since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden and wake him from his sleep."

"And you want to be a searcher?" Harry asked.

"It's my life's dream," Grover said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand, he knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."

"Hang on… the first?" Percy asked with wide eyes.

"No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again." Grover explained. "But it's worth it; if we find Pan then he can fix the wild, undo the mess that you humans have made of things."

"Hey!" Harry snapped, getting annoyed at Grover's accusations. "Not all humans are like that, especially where I'm from."

"You saying England _doesn't_ litter?" Percy asked.

"I'm not talking about England. I'm a wizard. We don't make a mess of the world, we don't litter, we don't cause light pollution, hell we don't even use electricity!" Harry exclaimed.

"You don't?" Percy asked in surprise.

"No, electronics don't work around our magic. You should see Hogwarts…" Harry mused as he laid back, closed his eyes and remembered his home, "A castle in the highlands of Scotland. A village called Hogsmeade not far from it. At night both are dotted with small lights coming from old fashioned lanterns. No mortal cities for miles all around so at night the sky is dotted with stars and those stars are reflected perfectly off the water of the great lake next to the castle. The view at night from the Astronomy tower is amazing."

Grover let out a sigh as he imagined it. Harry continued to remember Hogwarts and special bushy haired witch, as his eyes slowly drooped and he slipped into a deep sleep.

**XXXXX**

Harry woke up with a start when he heard a loud 'SNAP'. He looked up and saw Annabeth standing on a twig.

"Sorry," Annabeth apologized.

It was early morning, the sun hadn't yet risen and Harry could still see the moon.

"It's okay, I'm used to getting up early," Harry said as he sat up and stretched. "You can get a couple hours extra sleep if you want, I'll take watch."

"Nah, I'm good," Annabeth said as she took a seat across from him and cast a glance at Percy and Grover whom were still sleeping.

"Harry, I have to ask you something," Annabeth said as she fingered a ring hanging from her leather necklace. "What was your life like back in England?"

Harry stiffened; he got the feeling Annabeth wasn't talking about Hogwarts.

"The way you talk about not missing your family, did your parents ever…" Annabeth stumbled over what she was trying to say.

"No, it wasn't them!" Harry quickly said, not wanting Annabeth to think that way about Lily and James Potter. A moment after the words left his lips he regretted it, he'd implied that he was mistreated. Harry took a deep breath and spoke.

"My… Mortal parents were murdered when I was only a year old. I survived but I was sent to live with my Aunt and Uncle, they hate anything 'Unnatural.' Since my Mum and Stepdad were magical they knew I would be and they hated me for it," Harry hadn't meant to start blurting out these things but it was the first time he'd ever spoken about them to anyone.

"Whenever they talked to me they'd call me Boy or Freak, I didn't even know my name until I started school, I got in trouble because I didn't answer attendance," Harry said with an annoyed shake of his head.

"They made you sleep in a cupboard," Annabeth blurted out making Harry's eyes widen.

"How did you know that?" Harry demanded.

"D-Demigods sometimes have dreams; they can be of the future, the present or the past. The night before we left camp I dreamt about a boy sleeping in a cupboard, he was woken up by a woman with a really long neck and told to cook breakfast, he stood on a stool cooking a pan of bacon, he slipped, the pan fell and…" Annabeth's eyes were filled with tears as she described the dream. Harry felt a phantom pain coming from his leg, he remembered that day and how his leg had been horribly burnt. "I'm so sorry Harry; I know these things are personal."

An uncomfortable silence hung between them for a few minutes, Harry knew he had to change the subject and had the perfect topic.

"About these Demigod dreams, I think I've been having a few," Harry said.

"About what?" Annabeth asked eager to change the subject.

"Well first about a girl," Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "Not like that!" he added quickly making her smirk.

"I've never seen this girl in my life but she keeps appearing in my dreams," Harry said.

"What did she look like?" Annabeth asked.

"Um… short black hair, a few freckles, blue eyes," as Harry described her, he didn't notice Annabeth's eyes widen a little at the description. "She was wearing a pair of blue jeans with the knees worn out and a black t-shirt that had a picture of a Barbie doll with an arrow through its head, above the picture it said-"

"Death to Barbie?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah… ok seriously can you read my mind or something?" Harry asked, getting a little irritated.

"No it's not… I know… knew her," Annabeth muttered incoherently. "Thalia."

"Thalia?" Harry asked trying to remember where he'd heard the name and then he remembered. "Wait, Thalia, the Daughter of Zeus? The one who was turned into a tree at camp, my half-sister? That Thalia?" Harry asked.

"Yeah… I knew her. I was brought to Camp Half Blood with her and Luke, Grover was our protector," Annabeth explained with a sad look on her face as she remembered the incident. "We were being chased by the Furies and a pack of Hellhounds, Thalia told Grover to run with us to camp while she held them off… she sacrificed herself so that Luke, Grover and I could survive. As she was dying Zeus took pity on her and turned her into the pine tree that protects our camp."

Harry's mind reeled, the girl he'd been dreaming of was the famous Thalia, Daughter of Zeus, his half-sister.

Harry wanted to ask more questions about Thalia but Grover suddenly moaned "Food!" in his sleep and rolled over; right off his branch and fell to the ground with a thud. This noise caused Percy to stir awake. Harry only now noticed how long he and Annabeth had been talking, the sun was coming up and the moon was no longer visible.

"Well," Annabeth said, "The Zombies live."

"How long was I asleep?" Percy asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast," Annabeth said as she tossed Percy a packet of tortilla chips she'd grabbed from Aunty Em's snack bar. Before Percy could open the pack Harry grabbed the pack out of his hands with a shake of his head.

"That's not a breakfast!" Harry said while shooting a disapproving look at Annabeth. Harry reached into his own pack and produced a few cooking supplies he'd found in Medusa's kitchen. A frying pan, a bottle of vegetable oil and a few simple ingredients.

"You can cook?" Percy asked, wondering eagerly what Harry was about to cook. Annabeth twitched, she knew how Harry had learned, Harry shot a look at her that clearly told her to keep her mouth shut. He didn't want the others to know, it was bad enough that she knew.

"Can you start a fire?" Harry asked nobody in particular.

Harry threw flour, milk and a few eggs into a bowl and started mixing. Within a few minutes Harry had pancakes cooking in the pan making the others drool.

"So, anybody have any idea what we do from here?" Grover asked. "I mean, we're supposed to be on our way to Denver right now. We're barely out of New York and we're stuck here with no way west."

"Well, I still have around five hundred dollars," Harry said. "We could get new tickets."

"Not another bus," Percy said warily.

"No," Annabeth said as she pointed down the hill. Harry followed her line of sight and saw train tracks. Last night he hadn't noticed them in the dark. "There should be an Amtrak station nearby.

"A train, now that I can handle," Harry said with a smile.

They then ate breakfast together, the others raving about how good the pancakes were, to Harry's embarrassment. When they had finished, they packed up and eventually made their way to the train station and caught a west bound train without any further… difficulties.

**XXXXX**

**Chapter 6: Not man's best friend**

The train stopped in St Louis for three hours. Instead of waiting in the boiling hot train car the quartet opted to go out for a bit of sightseeing.

After getting off the train Annabeth pointed at a large arch structure, it looked like a huge shopping bag handle sticking two hundred meters out of the ground, The Gateway Arch.

"That's what I want to do," Annabeth said with a sigh.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Build something like that. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods ever. Something that'll last a thousand years," she said, her eyes shining with excitement.

"You?" Percy asked with a laugh, "An architect?"

"Yes, an architect," Annabeth snapped with flushed cheeks. "Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention," she said before storming off towards the Arch.

"Where're you going?" Grover called.

"The Gateway Arch," Annabeth called back. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"

The Arch was about a mile from the train station. The four weaved their way through the underground museum, looking at wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling but Harry for one was glad for a change of pace. Then he noticed Grover looking around nervously.

"You smell anything?" Harry asked

"Underground," Grover muttered distastefully. "Underground always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

With a 'ping' the elevator they were waiting for opened. They managed to squeeze into the tin box along with a big woman holding a small dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar.

They started going up, inside the Arch. Harry had never been in an elevator before, especially not one that went in a curve and his stomach wasn't too happy about it.

"No parents with you dearies?" The big woman asked them.

Harry twitched, _'Why does everyone keep asking that?'_

"They're below," Annabeth answered noticing Harry's discomfort, "Scared of heights."

"Oh, the poor darlings," the Chihuahua in her arms growled at them.

"Now, now, sonny. Behave," the tiny dog had beady eyes, like it's owner, intelligent and vicious.

"Sonny, is that his name?" Percy asked.

"No," the lady said with a smile, as if that cleared everything up.

Getting off the elevator they reached the observation deck. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. Harry had never been this high up without his broom, he found it to be more than a bit breathtaking. Even the view from the Astronomy Tower paled in comparison.

Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger and designed a see-through floor. She probably could have stayed up there for hours, but the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.

Percy quickly steered them towards the elevator, he didn't like being this high up and in an enclosed space. Annabeth and Grover were loaded into the elevator and Percy was about to join them when he realized that two other tourists had already gotten in. No room for anyone else.

"Next car, sirs," the park ranger said.

"We'll get out and wait with you," Annabeth said, she didn't want to separate after what happened to them on the bus and at Aunty M's.

"It's okay," Harry held his hand up. "We'll see you at the bottom."

Grover and Annabeth looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.

Now the only people on the observation deck were Percy, Harry, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.

Harry smiled uneasily at the lady, she smiled back, her forked tongue flickering through her teeth…

Wait a minute… forked tongue?

Before Harry could wonder if he'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down from her arms and started yapping at him and Percy.

"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."

"Doggie!" the little boy said with a smile. "Look, a doggie!" his parents pulled him back.

The Chihuahua bared his teeth at Harry and Percy. Black foam dripped from his black lips.

"Well son," the lady sighed, "If you insist."

Percy's gut hitched, "Um, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"

"Chimera, dear," the lady corrected, "not a Chihuahua, though it's an easy enough mistake to make I suppose."

She rolled up her sleeves, revealing the skin on her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled Harry saw her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were vertical slits, like a reptile's.

The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark it grew. First, to the size of a Doberman, then to the size of a lion, the bark became a roar.

The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back towards the exit, straight into the park ranger who stood paralyzed, gaping at the monster.

The chimera was now so tall it's back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat and a… Harry closed his eyes and sighed… a snake for a tail, a three-meter-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind.

Around the Chimera's neck the rhinestone collar still hung and a plate sized dog tag hung from it.

CHIMERA - RABID, FIRE BREATHING, POISONOUS - IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS - EXT 954.

The snake lady made a hissing noise that might have been laughter. "Be honored, Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. Lord Hades rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, terrible Echidna!"

Harry and Percy were frozen at the appearance of the two new monsters, Echidna and her son Chimera. Harry didn't know what to say, Percy blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Echidna? Isn't that a kind of anteater?"

She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, my son will destroy you both!"

"What?" Harry blurted out. "What'd I do?"

Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. Harry and Percy leaped aside in different directions, Percy to the left, Harry to the right. The family screamed along with the park ranger while trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.

Percy uncapped his pen and ran to the other side of the deck yelling, "Hey, Chihuahua!"

The Chimera turned to him turned to him and opened its mouth emitting a stench of sulfur and brimstone and shot out a column of flame straight at him. Percy dodged to the side just in time, the flames struck the wall and melted a huge hole in the metal where he had been standing.

Harry meanwhile had removed the hilt from his pocket and it grew into his sword. While the Chimera had its attention on Percy, Harry tried to attack from behind, the snake tail didn't take kindly to that. It lashed out strongly but Harry dodged at the last second and slashed his sword down through the snake's neck. The head fell to the ground and monster roared in pain as the head burst into golden dust.

"WHY?" Harry yelled as he moved to assist Percy. "WHY IS IT ALWAYS SNAKES?"

Percy jumped back to his feet and lunged at the Chimera. He swung his sword at the Chimera's neck. This was a mistake as Percy's sword sparked harmlessly off the dog collar.

The Chimera lunged and bit at Percy's sword, it was knocked out of his hand and through the melted hole in the wall and down towards the Mississippi river.

"Harry, I could use a hand here!" Percy called in desperation.

In an extremely reckless move, Harry leaped up and easily landed on the Chimera's back and held on tightly to the collar with one hand as he raised the hand with the sword. Overhead, a bolt of lightning shot down and blasted a hole in the roof stunning everyone except Harry who stood and caught the second lightning bolt a heartbeat later with his sword and jumped spinning in the air to point his sword at the Chimera releasing the bolt which struck the monster and vaporized it. Harry landed and easily rolled to his feet, sword in hand with electricity rippling up and down his body. He turned and noticed his friend had been knocked through the hole in the floor. He ran over to the hole and looked down.

"Percy!" Harry yelled as he saw his friend falling towards the river below. He heard a roar of anguish behind him and spun to face Echidna.

"M-My son… _you_, what did you do!" she roared. Harry had almost ten seconds before the elevator would arrive, maybe he could dive in and hit the down button before she could get over her shock.

"Sorry lady, but that dog had to be put down," Harry said as he stood up with his sword at the ready. A few seconds left.

"You, I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU…" Echidna roared, and charged, he sidestepped her and spun his sword striking her on her flank, wounding her. This just seemed to enrage her even more.

"Ah crap," Harry cursed.

He looked at the elevator as it pinged open and began to move towards it.

"Okay," Harry said as he backed away from her slowly. "I know you're probably pissed at me for killing your son and wounding you but…"

This was obviously the wrong thing to say, the enraged monster charged again and Harry again sidestepped, but this time he spun and drove his blade with both hands into the hideous creature's neck and grimaced as she exploded into dust.

Harry took a breath and turned and walked to the elevator and hit the call button. 'Ping', the doors opened again and he stepped in and hit the 'G' button causing the doors to close. Harry leaned against the back of the Elevator; taking several deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

'Ping', the elevator doors opened a while later on the ground floor. Harry's hand fell to his side and the sword shifted back to its hilt form and he quickly tucked it into his pocket and moved off to find his companions.

**XXXXX**

Harry weaved his way slowly through the crowd of emergency officials and news crews.

"Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation." a news lady said talking into a camera. "The damage as you can see, is very serious. There is some speculation as to whether the damage was caused by the sudden freak lightning storm. However, there are eyewitness reports of someone falling from the arch just before the storm."

Harry continued on looking for Annabeth, Grover and Percy. He made his way towards the river where he'd last seen Percy.

"… two adolescent boys," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show two adolescent boys going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities…"

Harry backed away and kept his head down hoping that he wouldn't be recognized. Police, medics and reporters were everywhere.

"Harrr-y," a familiar voice bleated.

Harry turned around as he was tackled into a hug by someone with blond hair. Grover and Percy were there not far behind her.

"You okay man?" Percy asked looking guilty; after he'd fallen from the arch he realized that Harry was left alone. Annabeth backed away from him and tried to look angry, but really she was just relieved to see him.

"We thought you'd found your way to Hades the hard way! We left you and Percy alone for five minutes! What happened?" she shrieked.

"I sort of fell," Percy said.

"Two hundred meters?" she asked before looking at Harry. "What about you? We saw a couple bolts of lightning strike the Arch!"

"I'll explain what happened but for now, we have to get out of here, the police…" Harry said looking over his shoulder.

The others looked confused and began to ask questions but Harry simply interrupted them.

"Come on!" Harry said and steered his friends away from the arch. As he did they overheard another reporter.

"Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that one of the boys who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted for questioning by the authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be heading west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

They ducked around the news van and into an alley.

They half jogged back to the train station without being spotted. They got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. After they got comfortable in their compartment Harry started explaining everything that happened. They looked at him in horror as he told them about the battle in the arch.

"So that's what caused the lightning bolts?" Annabeth asked shakily. Harry nodded.

"I called for the bolts and used one to destroy the Chimera," Harry explained. Everyone nodded and exhausted from the events of the day, settled in to sleep for a while.

The train trundled west as sun went down, police lights still pulsing against the St Louis skyline behind them.

**XXXXX**

The next afternoon, June 14th, seven days before the solstice, the train rolled into Denver. They hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car. They hadn't bathed since leaving Camp Half-Blood.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

Last night Percy had explained what happened to him after he fell from the arch. When he hit the water he had a vision of a woman, a water spirit. She told him his father, Poseidon, wanted him to visit the Santa Monica beach.

"We can't use phones right?" Percy asked.

"We can't?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Using a phone is a really bad idea for Demigods," Annabeth explained. "It would be like sending up a flare to every monster for miles around. But I'm not talking about phones."

They wandered through downtown for about half an hour before Harry spoke up. "What're we looking for?"

"That," Annabeth said and pointed at an empty do-it-yourself car wash. They walked into the stall furthest out of sight, Grover took out the spray gun.

"It's seventy-five cents," Grover grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."

Harry reached into his jeans pocket and grasped at the money he had remaining, buying tickets to Denver for the four of them had used up most of it. All he had remaining was a ten dollar bill, a five dollar bill, a couple of scrunched up singles and a handful of change. He tossed Grover a quarter.

"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, mirroring Harry's confusion.

Grover fed the quarters into the machine and set the knob to fine mist.

"I-M'ing," Grover answered.

"Instant messaging?" Percy asked.

"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."

"You summon a goddess… with a spray gun?" Harry asked with a smile.

Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. Afternoon sunlight filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.

Annabeth held her palm out to Harry, "Drachma please." Harry fished a golden drachma from his pocket and tossed it to her.

She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering," she threw the drachma into the mist. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.

"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.

The mist rippled and suddenly they were looking the mist at strawberry fields and the Long Island Sound in the distance. The view from the porch of the Big House, the first view of the Camp Harry had seen. Standing with his back to them at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in short sand an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring at something down in the meadow.

"Luke!" Percy called.

He turned, eyes wide. "Percy!" his scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

"We're… uh… fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty t-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought… Chiron… I mean…"

"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Are Grover and Harry all right?"

"We're here," Harry called stepping into view. "What kind of issues?"

"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke explained. "Things are getting pretty tense here guys. Word leaked out about the Zeus / Poseidon stand-off. We're not sure how, probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. Ares and Apollo are backing Poseidon, Athena is backing Zeus. The Aphrodite cabin is split, the boys on Poseidon's side and the girls on Zeus's side… I wonder why?" Luke finished with a small smirk at Harry making him blush. It was no secret that most of the girls in the goddess of love's cabin had a crush on him. It was something about the accent.

"So what's your status? Chiron will be sorry he missed you," Luke asked. At that moment the beeper went off on the spray machine letting them know they only had a minute left before the water shut off. Percy quickly blurted out what happened to them so far on the quest, he stopped when the water shut off and Luke's face disappeared.

Annabeth seemed disturbed at the news, her mother, Athena, was taking sides against her friend.

"Come on, let's find some dinner," Percy said.

A few minutes later the four were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around them, families were eating burgers and drinking milkshakes and sodas.

Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"

"We, um, want to order dinner." Percy said.

"You kids have money to pay for it?" she asked in a mean tone, looking at their dirty clothes with disgust. She reminded Harry of Aunt Petunia.

Grover's lower lip quivered. Harry almost expected him to start bleating or eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger and Percy seemed to be struggling to come up with a sob story for the waitress. Harry on the other hand rolled his eyes in annoyance and a little anger, he been through a lot in the past few days, compared to that, this rude waitress wasn't all that threatening.

"Do you always ask your customers for money before they've even ordered?" Harry asked roughly making her take a step back. "Three cheese burgers and four fries, a portion of onion rings and four chocolate milkshakes." Harry ordered as he fished his remaining money out of his pocket and placed it on the table for her to see.

The waitress hurried off with the order, not waiting to be scolded by the angry twelve-year-old again.

The others thanked him for dealing with the situation and buying their meals, Grover was thankful for Harry remembering he was vegetarian.

As they waited for their meal they discussed how they would continue their journey west now that they were completely out of cash and had no ride. Harry was trying to think of something when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.

All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns.

The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run crying for their mama. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh.

He wore red wraparound shades and he had the cruelest, most brutal looking face they'd ever seen. Handsome, but wicked, with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights.

As he walked into the diner a hot dry wind blew through the place. Everybody watched him as if they were hypnotized, he waved his hand dismissively and as if a spell was broken, everybody went back to their meals and conversations.

To the group's horror, the biker grabbed a spare chair, placed it at the end of their booth and sat down. He looked directly at Percy.

"So, you're old Seaweed's kid huh?" he then turned to Harry and sneered, "and you must be dad's latest kid, Potter. The one who dropped that snake on me!"

They should have been surprised, or scared, instead the biker seemed to emit an aura of hatred.

"What's it to you?" Percy snapped. Harry didn't blame him, just being near this guy made him angry for some reason.

Annabeth's eyes flashed a warning towards her friend. "Percy, this is-"

The biker raised his hand to silence her. "S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am little half-bloods?"

Suddenly it came to Harry, 'dropped a snake on him?'

"You're Clarisse's dad," Harry muttered with wide eyes, "Ares, the god of war."

Ares took off his shades with a grin and where his eyes should have been there was only fire.

"That's right punk," He turned to Percy, "I heard you broke Clarisse's spear," said the deity.

"In self defense," Percy muttered.

"That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for… Well, I heard you four were in town. I got a little proposition for you," and with that Ares began explaining the aforementioned proposition.

Ares wanted Harry and his companions to retrieve the war god's shield from a water park where he had forgotten it on a date and bring it back to him. Harry could sense there was more to the story and a reason why Ares was unwilling to undertake the task himself. The group finally agreed to the chore, if only to get the temperamental god out of their presence without pissing him off. It was generally a good idea not to piss people off if one could help it and the rule applied even more for gods and goddesses… particularly this god. Once he had their agreement, the massive being stood and placed his shades back on.

"Glad to hear it punks," then he strode out of the diner and pulled a disappearing trick where the deity put every mortal in a trance as he calmly rode away. The four watched until he was no longer visible and then sighed in relief. After a brief discussion over what to do, they finished eating, paid and left to find the amusement park Ares had spoken of.

**XXXXX**

They found the park fairly easily but also found that it was locked up tight. Harry pulled his wand and a quick '_Alohomora'_ easily took care of the lock.

Annabeth smiled at Harry, "Nice trick."

He winked at her and gave her a grin, "Thanks."

Once the gate was open, the four cautiously made their way inside, and after a bit of searching the four friends eventually found the tunnel of love ride where Ares had indicated his shield might be. Annabeth and Harry climbed down into the boat at the bottom to retrieve the shield they could see perched inside the small vessel while Percy and Grover maintained a look-out. When the pair got down into the boat they could see mirrors aimed so that the riders could always see themselves via their reflections.

'_How conceited of them,'_ Harry thought of the two deities, Ares and Aphrodite, who had likely used the ride on a date… which explained how Ares' shield came to be located in the amusement park, but not why he couldn't get it himself.

As soon as Harry touched the shield a trip wire was activated. The cupid statues adorning the water ride fired metal wire strands at each other and a net was quickly formed over them. Video cameras popped out of the heads of the cupid statues as Annabeth and Harry ran for the edge of the depression which normally held water for the boats to float on.

As spotlights blared a voice boomed over the loudspeaker, "Live to Olympus in one minute…Fifty-nine seconds...Fifty-eight seconds…."

"Hephaestus! I'm so stupid. He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we are going to be broadcast to Olympus and look like absolute fools," Annabeth shouted.

Just then the mirrors opened up before thousands of tiny robotic spiders came at the two half bloods. Annabeth screamed in terror as Harry quickly hauled her back to the boat. The spiders started spraying tiny threads of metal over the two cornered campers to secure them to the boat. Annabeth was screaming the entire time. The daughter of Athena knew that while Hephaestus' trap might not kill his wife and Ares, who had the benefit of being gods, it most certainly could maim or even kill two half bloods.

Percy, standing above with Grover had finally had enough and refused to stand by and let his friends be hurt. "To hell with this," Percy muttered as he threw his right hand out towards the huge water pipes which fed the ride when it was operating normally. At the son of Poseidon's command the pipes burst and watered rushed towards the two trapped half bloods.

Before Annabeth could drown as the water went above her head, Harry grabbed her, he felt a powerful tug in his chest and instinctively formed a bubble of air around the two of them, pushing the water away from their bodies. The two watched as the water tore the spiders apart and the debris bounced harmlessly off Harry's bubble. Finally, the water receded and Harry again instinctively lashed out with a powerful blast of air and destroyed the net over them. He quickly helped Annabeth out of the boat and they rushed over to Percy and Grover who helped them out of the channel. The shield in hand, they quickly made their way out of the park.

**XXXXX**

After leaving the park behind, the quartet found Ares waiting for them in the parking lot of the diner where they had previously encountered the god of war.

"Well, well… you didn't get yourselves killed little half-bloods, must say, I'm a little impressed," Ares mocked.

Harry could sense that it irked the aggressive deity when his taunts didn't even garner a reaction out of them, ignoring it he handed the war god his shield and stepped back.

"I bet that crippled blacksmith was really surprised when instead of his expected catch, he netted a couple of punk half-blood kids. You look good on TV by the way," Ares taunted the trio again.

"For the entire two seconds we were on, I would imagine we did," Harry deadpanned with a calm straight face, much to the ire of Ares.

Finally, after staring them for a bit, the war god shrugged. "See that truck over there. That's your ride. It'll take you straight to LA with one stop in Vegas," the god informed the four campers as he pointed to an eighteen wheeler across the street.

The side of the truck had the words 'KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT, WARNING LIVE WILD ANIMALS.'

"And before I forget, here's a little something for doing the job for me," Ares added as he handed Harry a blue nylon backpack.

When the young wizard looked inside of the bag he found there were fresh clothes for four traveling youths, one hundred dollars in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas and a bag of double stuffed Oreos.

Harry nodded and looked up at the god. "Thanks… brother," Harry responded just to get on Ares' nerves a bit more.

The god of war bristled at Harry, but merely watched as he walked off with Percy, Annabeth and a nervous Grover towards the tractor-trailer. The son of Zeus had an odd feeling about the blue bag and not just mere suspicion at a supposed 'gift' from the god of war, there was something almost… familiar about the bag, like he had seen it, or held it before. He couldn't place the feeling though no matter how hard he tried, so he set it aside for later consideration. Right now, they had a ride to catch.

They watched in silence as the god of war straddled, started and rode off on his huge motorcycle, then they headed over to the parked semi to catch their… ride.

**XXXXX**

As the group climbed into the trailer of the big rig, a smell reminiscent of a giant litter box hit Harry like a brick. Pinching his nostrils shut and not breathing, he ejected his wand and lit it with a _'Lumos'_ spell, the four friends were met with the sight of three miserable and poorly cared for animals.

A zebra, an albino lion and a cousin to the antelope that Harry didn't know the exact name for, were caged inside the truck and were in very poor shape. The lion had a sack of turnips in its cage, while the antelope and the zebra each had a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat sitting in front of them. The cages themselves were very dirty and the animals' ribs were showing clearly, an indicator that they had not been properly fed in some time.

"This is _kindness_? _Humane_ zoo transport," Grover yelled in shock.

Harry put a hand on his shoulder and calmed his satyr friend down before setting to work. He calmly walked to the cages and changed the food to the correct cages using switching spells and then proceeded to clean the cages and the animals with a few cleaning spells. After that, a few air freshening charms ensured the trailer was no longer so rank. The animals were happily digging in to their meals and seemed to be much more relaxed.

After that was taken care of, the group sat down and settled in for the long haul to Vegas. Grover curled up to sleep on a turnip sack, while Harry, Percy and Annabeth chatted quietly.

"I'm so sorry Harry, for freaking out about the spiders in the water park," Annabeth spoke up finally, breaking the repetitive sound of Grover's snores and the vibration of the big rig running over the highway.

"Because of the Arachne story right?" Harry inquired of his friend. "Arachne was turned into a spider for challenging your mother to a weaving contest if I remember correctly, right?"

"Yes and Arachne's children have been taking their revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there is a spider within a mile of me it will find me. I hate the creepy little things," she shuddered, "Anyway I owe you," Annabeth finished.

Harry grinned and shook his head, "Not at all, anything for a friend."

From there the half blood's conversation turned to what really happened with Thalia. Grover woke up at that point and helped Annabeth to recount the tale. Grover was the satyr sent to collect Thalia. The Camp administrators and the Council of Cloven Elders (the ruling Satyr body) knew Hades was after the dark haired girl so Grover wasn't supposed to stop for anything else. The newly assigned satyr guide didn't listen to them and at Thalia's insistence, decided to bring fourteen year old Luke and a seven year old Annabeth, Thalia's companions along with them to Camp. As a result the, they were spotted and the three half bloods and the satyr were attacked by the Furies and a number of other terrible monsters. Annabeth, Percy and Harry had to reassure Grover quite a bit that it was not his fault, that he did the right thing before the human goat hybrid eventually fell back to sleep.

Noticing the ring strung on Annabeth's necklace, Percy asked her about it.

"My dad sent it to me, folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her…That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and that he missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him," the pretty blonde explained as she rubbed the college ring.

"What happened," Harry softly asked.

"I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my step mom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked… I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to camp," Athena's daughter explained sadly.

"You think you'll ever try again," asked Percy.

"I'm not into self inflicted pain," Annabeth answered looking down.

"You _should_ try again Annabeth. I'm sure your dad would love to get to know the beautiful person you've become," Harry told Annabeth as he pulled her in for a quick hug and then released her and Percy also hugged her. She smiled and sat next to Percy leaning on his shoulder.

Annabeth didn't answer them so they relaxed and played a few games, just getting to know each other better. As he watched Percy and Annabeth, both blissfully unaware of their feelings, Harry smiled and thought about Hermione. He hoped she was well and had gotten his letter. Eventually, they all joined Grover in the land of nod.

**XXXXX**

Later, Harry was startled awake by Grover, who informed him quietly, that he and Annabeth believed the drivers were coming to check on the animals.

"Hide," Annabeth hissed as the door latch turned and pulled on her cap and vanished.

Harry pulled his cloak out and draped it over himself, Percy and Grover and they all shifted back against the wall of the trailer and waited quietly.

The drivers started to taunt the animals as soon as they had opened the doors of the trailer.

"I hope you like magic shows stripes. You're going to love this one. They're going to saw you in half," the driver taunted the zebra.

The animal turned to look towards them and he felt Percy stiffen briefly. Harry recalled from mythos that Percy's father had created horses and thought maybe Percy could communicate with them somehow? After all, he could talk to snakes, so it wasn't that far of a stretch. Annabeth knocked on the side of the trailer which got the driver to go check if his coworker was making the racket.

"This animal driving business _can't_ be legal," Annabeth whispered harshly.

"The lion says they are animal smugglers," Grover informed his two companions.

Percy nodded, "The zebra says so too."

The group quickly decided to free the three animals. Harry quickly opened the locks with his wand as Grover blessed each creature using satyr magic. The three escaped beasts would find the food and water they needed to survive until they made it safely into the wild. After accomplishing that task Harry, Percy, Annabeth and Grover slipped quietly out of the truck and took off running, not stopping until they eventually tired out, they found themselves standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. They were invited inside the building where Harry felt _extremely_ weird from the moment he stepped across the entrance threshold. They were given plastic cards with unlimited money and tokens on the linked accounts. The strange feeling escalated for Harry and the situation was growing weirder and weirder as they were given complimentary suites and shown to them.

It only took the friends a few minutes to shower in their rooms. Harry's magic and his powerful demigod heritage combined to allow him to fight off the strange power blanketing his mind allowing him to continue to function. He quickly realized that something seemed to be wrong with time itself inside the hotel. Realizing the danger, Harry rapidly dressed and packed his things and then grabbed his protesting companions from their rooms and dragged them out of the hotel. As soon as they were clear of the threshold, the fog seemed to lift from his friends minds.

Grabbing a newspaper Harry found that only a day had passed for the outside world in the short time the trio had been within the hotel and sighed in relief. Luckily, they still had five more days until the summer solstice.

To get to Santa Monica in a timely fashion, the four friends managed to stow away in another semi-trailer, though thankfully there were no animals this time. They arrived in Santa Monica the next day and made their way to the beach near the Santa Monica Pier where Percy waded out into the water to meet with his father while the rest of the foursome waited for him.

When he returned they discussed the information he had been given and decided to search for DOA Recording Studios. They made their way into West Hollywood by bus and from there they scouted around until eventually, they found it.

**XXXXX**

When the trio finally located the object of their search, they found themselves looking up at a plaque on the building with golden letters etched into black marble that read DOA RECORDING STUDIOS: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.

Walking into the lobby, they could hear music being played softly on concealed speakers. They navigated their way through the crowd of unusual people standing in the lobby, all of them wearing clothing from various periods of history. The young wizard led the way up to the security desk which held a guard in an expensive Italian suit. The attendant's name tag read Charon.

"Good day to you Mr. Charon, we'd like to go to the underworld please," stated Harry.

"Well, well, I must say that's refreshing… someone actually _willing_ to move on. Weird, anyways… how did you die," Charon questioned.

"We didn't," the green eyed boy responded.

Leaning forward the expensively dressed attendant sniffed them for a moment before growling out, "Leave… _now_… while you still can Godlings and take your satyr with you."

"Come now sir, we can make it worth your while," Harry said and enticed guardian of the entrance to the Underworld by withdrawing a handful of drachmas from the sack given to them by Ares.

"Do you think I can be bought Godling," Charon blustered briefly before he paused… then asked greedily, "just out of curiosity… how many do you have?"

Harry stacked twenty golden drachmas on the counter one by one until finally Charon spoke up, "Fine, fine… the boat is almost full anyways. I might as well add you four. Come along then," the boatman instructed as he snatched up the money.

Charon led the group to an area where spirits were already waiting to depart.

"Right… now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone and if anyone moves the dial off my easy listening station again I'll make sure you are here for another thousand years," Charon called out to the spirits remaining behind in the entrance lobby.

Charon took the four still living travelers into a key card controlled elevator. Once they were all inside, the lift started to descend once the guardian swiped his keycard.

"What happens to the spirits in the lobby," Annabeth decided to ask.

"Nothing," Charon answered with a grin.

"For how long," Athena's daughter queried.

"Forever… or until I'm feeling generous," was Charon's reply as the immortal boatman waved his hand casually about to signify his lack of concern for the spirits.

"Oh… um that's…fair," Annabeth stated, unsure what else to say.

"Now whoever said Death is fair young miss? Just you wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough where you're going," the boatman informed the young blonde.

Harry turned to face Charon and stated simply, "We'll see boatman… we'll see."

All of a sudden the elevator started to move forward instead of down and the spirits started to change shape around the four still living campers. The spirit's clothes turned into robes and the floor of the elevator began swaying slowly.

Charon's creamy Italian suit was then replaced by a black robe. His eyes changed to empty sockets of death and despair. The elevator had changed into a wooden barge. Charon was poling the small craft across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish and other, even stranger things… plastic dolls, crushed carnations and soggy diplomas with gilt edges.

"The river Styx, it's so…," Annabeth whispered, trailing off.

"Polluted," Charon summed the body of water up succinctly. "For thousands of years you mortals have been throwing in everything as you cross… hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management if you ask me," Charon finished.

The teens heard a growl off in the distance at that moment.

"Sounds like old Three-Face is hungry, bad luck for you little Godlings," Charon informed Harry, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover with a skeletal grin.

After the four friends departed the barge onto the black sandy shore the three part deities and one satyr came to an archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each of the three entrances had a pass through metal detector with security cameras. Beyond that there were tollbooths manned by black robed ghouls like Charon. Two of the lines were marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY while the third was marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving fast while the other two were the opposite.

"That fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields, no contest. Souls who enter that line don't want to risk judgment from the court because it might go against them. The court is made up of three judges who are rotated. People like King Minos, Thomas Jefferson and Shakespeare sit on the bench. They look on a life and judge it. The judged could receive the special reward of the Fields of Elysium or a punishment. Most people just lived, good or bad, so go to the fields of Asphodel," Annabeth explained.

"Those would be like standing in a wheat field in Kansas forever," Grover added his two cents.

Harry winced at the descriptions but continued leading the way. Further up the path where it split into three routes the quartet of living could see the green mist converge into a dark shape. The shadowy form was Cerberus, a huge black Rottweiler with three heads and he was staring right at them. Harry quickly wondered if the Cerberus might have the same weaknesses as Fluffy did. The young wizard pulled a small magical music box out of his pocket out of his pocket and turned it on. Almost instantly the giant canine's eyes began to droop. Before long the three headed beast was sleeping on his front paws.

"Let's go," Harry whispered to his companions.

Almost as soon as the quartet made it past Cerberus, Harry, Percy, Annabeth and Grover hid under the cloak (which expanded to accommodate them all), they quickly passed through the metal detector of the EZ death line. The cloak hid the trio as apparently even death couldn't find them under it.

The fields of Asphodel stretched on into infinity with countless people just standing on the endless expanse, doing absolutely nothing. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees which Harry recognized as poplars grew in clumps here and there. The ceiling was very high up with stalactites that glowed faintly gray with wicked points.

The dead souls had faces which shimmered as they looked angry or confused. A living viewer couldn't understand the expressions playing across the shimmering faces of the no longer living. They weren't scary, just sad. The campers followed the line as it went towards a pavilion with the banner JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION, Welcome Newly Deceased! Two smaller lines came out of the back of the pavilion.

In the left line, security ghouls escorted spirits down the rocky path to the fields of punishment. Even from the distance he was concealed at Harry could see the fields were not a pleasant place. The line from the right led to a small valley surrounded by walls. This gated community seemed to be the only happy part of the underworld. There were houses from every era in history. He could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking, Elysium definitely sounded like a pleasant place to spend eternity.

In the center of Elysium there was a lake with a small island. This was the Isle of the Blessed for those people who chose to be reborn and achieved Elysium three times.

"_That's_ what it's all about. _That's_ the place for true heroes," Annabeth whispered as she looked at the island.

The invisible friends walked further until they left the chattering spirits behind and things got darker. In the distance was a palace of glittering black obsidian. The three furies were circling the parapets.

"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover asked nervously.

"Everything will turn out ok," Harry reassured his friends confidently.

Percy nodded, "We'll get through this… together."

Suddenly Luke's enchanted shoes took off, flying out of Grover's bag and heading off into the distance. Harry was glad he had insisted that Grover not wear them here. The satyr watched sadly as the shoes vanished in the distance.

**XXXXX**

The group made their way quickly to Hades' palace where they were greeted by wide open doors. There were scenes of death etched into the murals on the walls. In Hades' home there was also a garden filled with mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and large clumps of raw jewels.

"The garden of Persephone, it's extremely dangerous, we have to keep moving," Annabeth ordered briskly.

Harry remembered the story of the garden from mythos as well. One bite of that fruit and they would never be able to leave Hades' domain. The demigods quickly dragged the plant loving Grover away from Persephone's lures. Then the three stepped into the house of Hades. Harry and his companions were greeted by skeletal guards. Some of the sentinels wore Greek armor while some wore red coats or even some American Military uniforms. Their weapons varied from spears to M-16s. The foursome went strangely unchallenged as they made their way to the big door at the end of the main entrance hall.

Harry and Percy led the way cautiously into the throne room of Hades. The ruler of the Underworld was ten feet tall at least, dressed in black silk robes and wore a crown of braded gold. The Lord of the Underworld had alabaster white skin and he sported jet black shoulder length hair. He wasn't overly muscular, but he radiated power and darkness. The immortal ruler sat upon a throne of fused human bones and he looked very, very dangerous.

Hades exuded a powerful, dark and charismatic aura and his mystique reminded Harry of his encounters with Voldemort, but on a far grander scale. This man was a sun compared to Voldemort's campfire. They all could feel that aura affecting them, Grover whimpered in fear.

"You are brave to come here Son of Poseidon and Son of Zeus. After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps… you are simply very foolish," Hades spoke in an oily voice.

"Lord and Uncle I come with a request," Percy responded strongly as the dark haired demigod stepped forward.

Hades sat forward in his throne with a raised eyebrow, curiosity showing in his intelligent eyes. At that moment the young wizard noticed that his divine Uncle's clothes seemed to be woven of tormented souls of the damned.

"A request? Such an arrogant child, as if you haven't already taken enough… Speak then boy, it amuses me not to strike you dead… yet," the God stated.

"I respectfully request you give Zeus' master bolt to me, so that I can return it to Olympus where it belongs," Percy began calmly.

"You dare! You dare to keep up this pretense with me after what you have done," Hades roared as his eyes flared dangerously.

"Uncle, you keep saying after what he has done. What exactly _is it_ that he has supposedly done," Harry questioned with honest confusion.

The throne room shook with a tremor, causing debris to fall from the ceiling. Hundreds of warriors poured into the room.

"Do you think I _want_ war, Godlings," Hades bellowed at his young nephews.

"As the Lord of the Dead wouldn't a war expand your kingdom," asked Harry with genuine curiosity.

"That's a typical misconception little half-blood!" Hades growled out, "Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"

"We did sir," answered Harry and Percy.

"Have you _any_ idea how much my kingdom has swollen in the last century _alone_, how many subdivisions I've had to open? More security ghouls, traffic problems at the judgment pavilion, double overtime for the staff… these are but a few of the problems which plague me. I _used_ to be a rich god! I hold control of all the precious metals under the earth, but my expenses…," the incredulous god shouted.

"_You _were the thief on the winter solstice!" he cried pointing at Percy, "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. Yes, I see his game clearly, he directed you into the throne room on Olympus. You took the master bolt _and_ my helm. Had I not sent my fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon _might_ have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open boy! You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief and I will have my helm back!" Hades shouted, ending his accusation.

"Lord Hades, your helm is missing too?" Annabeth asked.

"Don't play the fool with _me_ girl! You have been helping this little hero all along. Poseidon sent you here to blackmail me into helping him no doubt. I have said nothing of the helms disappearance because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for it to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So… I searched for you myself and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you," Hades explained, "after all, you were delivering yourselves into my hands freely… rather convenient for me!"

Harry internally snorted, but remained silent. This was not the time to press the already extremely angry Lord of Death.

"Return the helm _now_ or I will stop death. That is my counterproposal to you godlings. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into your world. I will make your lands a living nightmare. And you Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, your skeletons will lead my armies out of Hades," Hades finished threatening them as his skeleton soldiers took a step forward with their weapons ready.

"You gods are all alike. You send your furies after us and they send other monsters," Harry growled with disgust. "All of you selfish, self-obsessive douche bags with no care for the consequences of your actions!"

"Return… my… property," demanded Hades.

"We don't have your damn helmet. We came for the master bolt," replied Percy.

"Which you already possess! You came here, to my own palace like a little fool daring to think you could threaten me with it," shouted the immortal.

At Hades' accusation Harry suddenly realized what the weird feeling he'd felt when he handled the bag Ares gave him was. The feeling was the master bolt, it felt like his own power, only much, _much_ stronger… and the bag itself felt similar to the magic that returned Percy's and his own swords to their pockets if lost.

"Ares tricked us… He gave it to us to bring here… he set us up," Harry said in sudden realization. The others looked at him with horror on their faces.

"Give me the master bolt! Now! It will make an excellent bargaining chip," Hades demanded.

Harry stepped back in between his friends. "Grab on to me and hold on tight!" he commanded.

"What are you doing," Hades demanded.

Harry didn't even respond as acting on instinct, he concentrated on the pull he felt when using his demigod abilities and focused desperately on escape. There was a bright flash and a sound of faint thunder and the four young heroes vanished in a bolt of lightning. They faintly heard Hades cry out in anger as they vanished.

**XXXXX**

They appeared on the beach near the Santa Monica bay in another flash of lightning and a faint clap of thunder. Harry knew Percy needed to be near the water to be effective which was why he had brought the group to the bay. They would be attacked soon and needed every advantage. In the distance they saw L.A. burning as Hades sent his minions to hunt the escaped half bloods and satyr down.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said, "we went all that way…"

Harry nodded as Percy gave her a hug, "It was a well thought out plot, whoever did this not only fooled Ares into helping them, they set us up, Percy in particular, to take the fall and start a three way war between Hades, Zeus and Poseidon." Harry shivered, "whoever it is, they must be _powerful_."

The others shivered too and Annabeth spoke again, "The prophecy was right though, we just had the wrong god… we went west and faced the god who turned… Ares," frowning in thought she continued, "Hades didn't want war and the theft of his symbol makes this much worse. The question is… who is manipulating Ares; I doubt he could pull this off himself… it's far too subtle." The sound of a motorcycle cut her off and they turned to see where it was coming from.

Down at the end of the beach waiting for the three campers in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, Ares climbed off his bike and stood facing them with an aluminum baseball bat held casually on his shoulder. The god of war's motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand blood red.

"Hey there, kids… you were supposed to die in the Underworld," Ares announced in a voice that sounded like he was genuinely pleased to see his younger brother and cousin.

"Sorry to disappoint but we rarely do what we're supposed to. So… just out of curiosity… why _did_ you steal the helm and the master bolt," Harry inquired calmly.

"Well, now, I didn't steal them personally see. Gods taking each other's symbols of power… that's a _big_ no-no. But, you're not the only little heroes in the world who can run errands," Ares answered with a grin.

"Since we're likely to die anyway could you tell us who you used? Was it Clarisse," Percy probed curiously.

"Doesn't matter, the point is kids you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing his brat. Corpse Breath will have Zeus' master bolt and will have killed my little brother, so Zeus will be mad at _him_. And Hades is still looking for this…," the war deity explained as he pulled a ski cap like a bank robber would wear out of one of his leather saddle bags.

As soon as Ares placed the ski cap onto the handlebars of his bike it transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.

"The Helm of Darkness," Grover gasped.

"Exactly, now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going," Ares explained.

"But… they're your family," Annabeth protested.

"Best kind of war girlie. It's always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say," Ares answered her with a shrug.

"You gave me the backpack in Denver. The master bolt was in there the whole time," Harry spoke up to try to get his bloodthirsty half-brother to reveal more of his misdeeds.

"Well… yes_ and_ no. It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brains to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like those swords you got, kid. They always return to your pockets, right?" Ares clarified glancing at Percy.

"Anyway I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades… and bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way… well, no loss since I still had the weapon," Ares explained.

"But… why not just keep the master bolt for yourself? Why send it to Hades," Harry prompted in confusion.

Ares developed a twitch in his jaw. For a moment, it was almost as if the deity was listening to another voice, deep inside his head.

"Why didn't I… yeah… I mean, with that kind of firepower…" mused the deity aloud before going into a trance for a few seconds.

Harry exchanged nervous glances with Percy and Annabeth as it appeared that Ares was almost under some kind of external control, like the imperious curse. Whoever or whatever was strong enough to put a god under something like the imperious curse was pretty damn powerful.

Finally, the god spoke in a more monotone voice, his eyes slightly dull, "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught red handed, holding the thing," Ares declared as his face cleared.

"You're lying! Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't even your idea… was it," Harry accused.

"Of course it was," Ares growled as smoke drifted up from his sunglasses, as if they were about to catch fire.

"_You_ didn't order the theft. Someone _else_ sent a half blood to acquire the two items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something or someone… convinced you to let him go. You kept the items hidden until another hero could come along and be duped into completing the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around," Percy spoke aloud as he remembered the conversation of his dream vision between the thief and the thing in the pit.

"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I have no dreams," Ares shouted.

"Who said anything about dreams," questioned Harry, catching the slip.

Harry could see his elder half-brother was very agitated but trying to cover it with a smirk.

"Let's get back to the problem at hand kids. You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just _might_ get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So… I've got to kill you. Nothing personal," Ares informed them.

Ares snapped his fingers and a wild boar larger than the one that hung above the door of the Ares cabin at camp exploded out of the sand at the war god's feet. As the massive beast charged towards the quartet Percy waved his hand causing a wave to sweep up and pull the squealing boar into the ocean.

"Fight me yourself coward. I'll make you a wager. If I win I take the helm and bolt and you leave us alone with safe passage. If you win you take both and I die," wagered the Son of Poseidon.

"Percy no! You can't," Annabeth whispered.

"How would you like to get smashed punk, classic or modern," Ares asked in response as he swung the bat off his shoulder.

In answer Percy showed Ares his sword as he uncapped Riptide.

"That's cool dead boy. Classic it is," growled the god as his bat changed into a large two handed sword with a skull biting a ruby for a hilt.

"Percy don't do this. He's a god," Annabeth tried again urgently, a pleading evident in her tone.

Harry placed a hand on her shoulder, "I got his back." With that, he reached into his pocket and retrieved the hilt of his own sword which shifted as he pulled it out and he stepped over near Percy. Annabeth gave them each a tearful hug, and Grover a handshake and then the two stepped clear.

"Two on one… hardly changes anything, I'll kill you both and then kill your friends. You all done with saying your goodbyes? I've been fighting for an eternity kids. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have _you_ got," Ares boasted as he stepped forward, closer to his mortal opponents.

"Spunk," Harry replied simply as he closed. The war god swung overhead and brought his sword down in a vicious attempt to cleave the young wizard in half, but Harry was no longer there, the wind seemed to be pushing him, increasing his speed so that to everyone but Ares he was a blur. The two exchanged a rapid fire series of blows, Harry constantly ducking and dodging. After a few minutes, the two separated and it was clear that the battle was not going how Ares intended. His massive body was littered with wounds seeping golden ichor. Of course, Harry had not escaped unscathed either, as he too had a number of bloody wounds on his body. Breathing hard, he backed away and instinctively released a massive blast of air which caught the war god off guard and tossed him into the water.

Percy immediately sprung into action, the water carrying him in close and lending him the strength to stand toe to toe with Ares. The two fought viciously for a couple of minutes until Ares managed to disarm Percy. In close now, the war god drew back a meaty fist and swung it with killing force at his mortal cousin. Percy managed to dodge just in time ducking under the blow he spun back around and as he turned his fist was encased in high pressure water. He completed his spin and managed to connect with Ares jaw with a titanic punch that would have pulverized a mortal and it sent the war god flying twenty feet through the air to impact well up the beach.

Taking this as his cue Harry raised his sword and felt the tug and pulled as hard as he could… a massive bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and connected with his sword and Harry flung it forward and launched the tremendous electrical charge at the prone war god who had no time to react before the bolt connected and shot him into the air and Harry then sent a massive blast of air to speed him up and launched the dazed god at a concrete wall some one hundred feet away and buried him over three feet into it. The dazed god of war managed to pull himself clear and staggered for a second before raising his sword just in time to block a vicious slash from Harry. Harry attacked with everything he had, he could feel his magic responding, healing his wounds, his sword was carrying an electrical charge and the wind seemed to be accelerating his movements again, putting him on nearly even footing with the dazed and wounded war god. Finally, after a long series of exchanges, Harry stepped in and spun around Ares and drove his sword through the back of the war god's knee, twisting it and removing the lower half of his leg. The roar that followed made Hades' earthquake look minor in comparison. Harry was blasted black from Ares and the ground cracked, leaving a circle of damaged pavement fifty feet in diameter. Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed freely from the stump of Ares' leg. The expression on the injured god's face was no longer hatred. It was pain, shock and utter disbelief as if he couldn't fathom that he'd actually been severely wounded by a mortal.

Ares moved as if to attack again but something stopped him. It was as if a cloud had covered the sun, but worse. Light faded while sound and color drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time and giving Harry the feeling as if a hundred dementors were nearby.

When the darkness lifted Ares looked stunned. The war god lowered his sword.

"You have made an enemy today, godling. You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, _brother_, beware," Ares warned as he began to glow.

Harry quickly averted his gaze as the deity revealed the true form of an Olympian god, a sight deadly to mortals. The young demigod wasn't sure what would happen if he stared at Ares' divine form but he had no wish to find out. The injured god of war was gone when the young wizard looked back. On the beach, Percy picked up Hades' helm of darkness and Harry joined them as the group turned when they heard a leathery flapping of wings to see the three furies land in front of them a few moments later.

"We saw the whole thing. So… it truly wasn't you," the fury formerly known as Miss Dodds said to Percy.

"Return that to Lord Hades. Tell him the truth and to call off the fight," Percy instructed the surprised fury as he tossed her the helm.

"Live well, Perseus Jackson and Harry Potter. Become true heroes, because if you do not, if you come into my clutches again…," the fury trailed off cackling.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck one of the furies and a lance of water surged up from the ocean and impaled another and both burst into golden dust.

Harry lowered his sword, "Bugger off, you evil bitch."

Dodds took off immediately in obvious fear of the wrath of the two demigods and rapidly flew away, vanishing into the distance. Harry and Percy moved to join Annabeth and Grover.

"…that was so amazing," Grover started.

"Terrifying," Annabeth corrected.

"Cool," Grover decided.

"Did you guys feel that… whatever it was," Harry questioned while thinking of the dementor like feeling.

The three nodded before Grover speculated, "It must have been the Furies flying overhead."

Harry knew the presence wasn't the three monsters because whoever was manipulating the war god was more powerful than Ares and the Furies were not even remotely in the same class as the war god.

Percy shook his head, "No… I've felt that before. In my dreams, the… whatever it is in Tartarus. It must be what's behind all of this."

Harry nodded, "Agreed. We need to get back to New York and head off this war… then we can figure out who was trying to start it and how to stop them for good." Looking around, his eyes fell on Ares motorcycle and a grin formed on his face… "I have an idea."

**XXXXX**

Somehow, the bike expanded enough so they could all fit and it could fly… Harry loved magic. He activated the invisibility feature and quickly got them in the air and set off Northeast, on a general heading for New York. After what felt like an hour, they saw the city ahead.

"Holy crap this thing is fast," Percy shouted.

Harry laughed like a loon, "I know, I wonder if my father will let me keep it?"

Grover and Annabeth both shivered at the thought… for them the flight had been terrifying.

A short time later, the bike landed near the Empire State Building and Harry and Percy continued on foot after showing Annabeth how to operate the bike, she and Grover continued on to Camp to report to Chiron.

Harry and Percy arrived at the building a short time later. Making their way into the lobby, they stepped over to the guard's desk.

"Six hundredth floor please," Harry requested of the guard politely.

The guard was reading a book with a picture of a wizard on the front. The sorcerer depicted on the book cover sort of reminded Harry of Merlin, or Professor Dumbledore. The real wizard thought it was kind of funny that the mortal was reading about a wizard when one was standing in front of him.

"No such floor kids," replied the guard without looking up from the book.

"We need an audience with Zeus," Harry insisted.

"Sorry," the mortal spoke vacantly, like he hadn't heard right.

"You heard me," the young wizard asserted, starting to get irritated.

"No appointment, no audience, kiddo. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced," responded the guard, no longer playing dumb.

"Oh I'm pretty sure he'll make an exception for us," Harry told the man as he pulled out the backpack Ares used to smuggle the God King's stolen weapon and let the guard glance at Zeus' master bolt.

It took the mortal a second to comprehend what Harry was showing him and then the guards face got very pale and he rushed the two half bloods through the elevator entry process very quickly. It was a long ride up. When the doors opened it was to a narrow stone walkway. Spread out below them was Manhattan, but they were viewing it from the height of an airplane. The campers gazed up a set of stairs which curled around a cloud to see the truncated top of a mountain.

All up the side of the mountaintop there were palaces all with white columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. The largest palace gleamed at the peak of Mount Olympus. The two demigods passed giggling wood nymphs who threw olives at them from their garden as the young heroes walked through the city. Market hawkers offered the travelers ambrosia on a stick, a new shield, and a genuine glitter-weave replica of the Golden Fleece as seen on Hephaestus TV. It seemed a festive mood permeated the realm of the gods. Some of the city dwellers that could have been minor gods whispered as they saw the victorious heroes pass by.

As Harry climbed towards the big palace at the peak he realized the structure was a reverse copy of the palace of Hades in the Underworld. Or more likely Hades' palace was the copy since the albino god wasn't welcome on Olympus. The two demigods entered the central courtyard before finally approaching the throne room. Massive columns led up to a ceiling filled with constellations. There were twelve thrones made to sit beings the size of Hades arranged in a U shape open towards the entrance. There was an enormous fire going in the hearth.

All of the thrones except two were empty: the head throne in the center and the one to its immediate left. The two mortals recognized the gods sitting in those thrones immediately.

Zeus was sitting on a solid platinum throne wearing a pin striped blue suit. The sky god had a neatly trimmed beard that was gray and black like a storm cloud. The god king's face was proud, handsome and grim. Harry stared for a moment, caught up in his first sight of his birth father.

Beside him, Percy was having a similar moment as he eyed the God of the Sea. Poseidon wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it. The king of the seas' skin was deeply tanned and his hands were scarred like an old fisherman's. His hair was black like his son's mane. Poseidon had smile lines around his eyes. Harry's father's throne was a deep sea fisherman's chair with a holster for a fishing pole. Instead of a pole the holster held a bronze trident that flickered with green light around the tips.

The tension in the room was palpable; Harry and Percy glanced at each other and nodded briefly. Each of the demigods moved forward and knelt before their respective fathers.

"Father," Harry said.

Zeus face softened for a moment, "Harry… my son." He then turned towards Percy and his face hardened again, "Should you not address the master of this house first, boy," Zeus demanded.

"Peace, brother the boy defers first to his father. This is only right," Poseidon spoke up.

"You still claim him then? You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath," Zeus growled menacingly.

"I have admitted my wrongdoing," he said and then he nodded at Harry, "as have you brother. Now I would hear him speak," Poseidon responded.

Harry watched as sadness and a bit of anger flitted across Percy's face at his father's comments and felt a bit himself, it was never nice to be talked about like you were a mistake especially when the ones making the comments spoke as if you weren't standing right in front of them… the Dursleys had given Harry enough such comments for ten lifetimes.

"I shall listen and then I shall make up my mind whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus," Zeus grumbled.

"Perseus, look at me," Poseidon instructed. Percy looked up at his father, his face neutral.

"Address Lord Zeus, my boy, tell him your story," Poseidon commanded.

So Percy turned to face Zeus and told him the story of their adventure. When he was done, he nodded at Harry who removed the backpack and opened it, holding it out to his father.

After a long silence Zeus opened his palm and the master bolt flew into it. The metallic points flared with electricity as the lightning god grasped the symbol of his power until Zeus was holding a twenty foot javelin of arcing and hissing energy.

"I sense the boy tells the truth, but to think that Ares would do such a thing…it is most unlike him," Zeus finally concluded, muttering the last bit.

"He is proud and impulsive. It runs in the family," Poseidon pointed out.

"My Lords," Harry spoke up.

Both brothers answered, "Yes?"

"Ares didn't act alone. Someone or something else came up with the idea and manipulated him and others into helping," Harry informed them and then he nodded at Percy.

Percy then told the two deities about his dreams and the feeling of the evil that washed over them after the fight with Ares.

"In the dreams the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld," explained the son of the sea god.

"Then you are accusing Hades after all," Zeus inquired, a dangerous tone returning to his voice.

"No. It wasn't Hades, Lord Zeus. It was something… older than even the gods. I sensed that this… whatever this is, is in that pit… in Tartarus," the Percy clarified.

This declaration sparked an intense discussion in ancient Greek that the English born wizard only caught one word of, Father. From that one word Harry concluded that it was Kronos in the pit and that he was the one who was behind these events. Zeus cut off Poseidon's suggestion for a response to the actions of Kronos.

"We will speak of this no more. I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of the Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal," Zeus announced before he rose from his throne. Pausing he turned to Percy.

"You have done me a service boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much," the king of the gods told his nephew as his expression softened a fraction. "To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live," Zeus informed his nephew.

At this, Harry bristled which did not go unnoticed by his father. "Harry…"

"Am I also a mistake father, an unwelcome portent of things to come? Percy is my friend and my cousin, he fought hard and bravely to protect Olympus from whatever was behind this threat. As did I," he saw anger flit across his father's features, before they settled into resignation.

"Walk with me, my son." And suddenly, Zeus and Poseidon were both human sized and Poseidon moved to speak with Percy. Harry frowned for a moment, then nodded and joined his father. As they walked, Zeus spoke, "you are not a mistake Harry. Never doubt that. I love you very much, as I do all of my children. But, as you have no doubt discovered, pride is a strong and difficult to overcome flaw for myself and those of my blood. You will face many challenges in the years to come, but you have made good friends and allies who will be at your side to face them. Trust in yourself, your heart and your instincts and know that I am always available to you… here." He pulled a small mirror out of his pocket and handed it to Harry. "If you need me, simply say 'father' while holding the mirror and we will be able to see and speak to each other."

Harry stared at the mirror for a moment and looked up at his father, tears welling in his eyes, "Thank you." On impulse, he hugged his father and felt the deity immediately return the embrace. Harry pulled back after a few moments and smiled, wiping away the few tears that had fallen, "I'm glad to finally meet you."

Zeus smiled, "And I you my son, now… your companion waits for you. Be well and safe my son, 'til next we meet."

**XXXXX**

When Harry and Percy arrived back at camp they found out that due to tradition there was to be a feast in their honor for the successful completion of their quest. The friends were the first to return alive to camp from a quest since Luke's rather unsuccessful quest. Harry was not a fan of the laurel wreaths that they had to wear or the fanfare and procession. Annabeth, Harry, Percy and Grover burned the burial shrouds that were made by their cabin mates in their absence in the bonfire. Apparently the campers felt it was best to be prepared in the likely event the quest partakers were killed on the journey. Seeing as the son of Poseidon and the son of Zeus had no cabin mates, Ares cabin had volunteered to make their shrouds.

Both shrouds were fashioned from old bed sheets and had smiley faces painted on them. The eyes were red X's and each shroud sported the word loser in large lettering at the center. While burning the shroud the young wizard just stared at the Ares cabin with a large grin. The Ares campers in turn were all sending venomous glares at Harry, no doubt because he had defeated and badly wounded their father.

Grover was basking in the attention his new searcher's license was bringing him. The council had given glowing praises of the satyr's performance on the quest so the young protector had no trouble obtaining the license. Harry's spirits were high as the days passed by at Camp Half Blood.

Eventually he settled into his routine again. Training with Percy, tutoring from Annabeth and he began his Animagus training in addition to working on his spell work. His summer homework was long since completed and he had read all of the third year books, obtained for him by Headmaster Dumbledore and forwarded along with his other necessary supplies to Chiron.

He had found a letter from Hermione waiting for him on his bed when he had retired for the night the day they returned. She asked after his health in the wake of the basilisk incident since they hadn't been able to talk before he had been sent to camp. She told him about her summer so far, she told him about her homework and asked about his… and most importantly, at least in Harry's opinion, she told him that she had feelings for him too and that they should definitely talk when they got to Hogwarts. Harry had been floating since then, no one was able to touch his good mood.

**XXXXX**

On July 31st, Percy, Annabeth and all the kids from the Hermes cabin threw a huge birthday party for Harry, it was the best he had ever had. He received a number of gifts. Books on weapons, tactics and martial arts from most of the campers, several magic books from the children of Hecate he'd befriended and from Hermione an ornate silver locket on a simple silver chain with a picture of the two of them together inside. He'd put it on immediately and only ever took it off to shower.

Over the next month Harry progressed steadily, on all fronts. The first week of August, he finally found his animagus forms and was both surprised and pleased. He actually had three forms. A golden eagle, a lion and a griffin… the third being a magical blending of his other two forms. He set to work on the transformative exercises in the book with the help and supervision of one of the older Hecate children. By the last week of August, he had successfully completed the eagle and lion forms and found that he had gained some advantages in his human form. He was stronger and faster, more agile and definitely had more stamina. His senses were greatly improved as well.

The griffin form was eluding him for now and the Hecate camper suggested that he might not be ready magically for the change, as he was only 13 and had yet to reach magical maturity.

During the last bonfire of the summer session the yearly bead for the camper's necklaces which turned out to be a green trident crossed with a golden lightning bolt.

"The choice was unanimous. This bead commemorates the first Son of the Sea God and the first Son of the Sky God at this camp in many years and the quest they undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war," Luke announced.

Everybody stood up and cheered for the four heroes at that point. Later that day, Percy had a brief but fierce battle with Luke, who as it turns out was the traitor who had summoned the hell hound into the camp and during the battle, he tried to kill the son of Poseidon with a pit scorpion. Percy defeated the son of Hermes and his pit scorpion and forced him to retreat. He informed his friends and Harry and Percy had to console a tearful Annabeth who didn't want to believe that Luke could do such a thing.

Finally, the end of the summer arrived and the group of friends gathered for goodbyes. Percy was off to enroll for 7th grade and spend some time with his mother. Grover was embarking on his quest to find Pan. Annabeth was staying at Camp and Harry was off to Hogwarts.

After shaking hands with Percy and Grover and receiving a hug from a tearful Annabeth, Harry headed up to the Big House. Inside, he found Headmaster Dumbledore chatting with Chiron. They turned as he entered.

"Ah Harry my boy," Dumbledore greeted, "I trust you had a good summer?"

"Hello professor," Harry smiled, "Yes sir, it was amazing. Be nice to see Hogwarts again though." Harry turned an offered his hand to Chiron, "Thank you for everything sir."

Chiron clasped his forearm and nodded, "It was my pleasure young Harry and we look forward to seeing you again next summer. Do remember to keep up with your training."

"I will sir, I promise."

With that, Dumbledore smiled and held out a sock, "Well then, let us be off. Grab hold please Harry."

Harry took hold of the end of the sock and felt the tug behind his navel as the portkey activated. This time he managed to land on his feet, albeit clumsily.

Finding himself in the Headmasters office, Harry turned to Dumbledore who smiled. "The Express will be arriving in three hours if you wanted to get settled in to the Tower and then accompany Hagrid to Hogsmeade station," the old wizard said, his eyes twinkling.

Harry gave a big smile and nodded, "I'd like that sir."

**XXXXX**

Three hours later, Harry stood near Hagrid on the platform watching the train pull into the station. He stood calmly, not giving any external indication of how nervous he was feeling inside. Finally, he caught sight of her, her slightly wild mane of curly brown hair and her pretty face with the bright intelligent brown eyes. The moment she spotted him, he and the rest of the platform knew it.

"HARRY!" He found himself the victim of a brown haired missile that engaged in an attempt to hug the very life from him. Finally, she eased up and pulled back, looking up into his eyes. He smiled down at her.

"Hello Mione," he said and seeing her light up at that, his instincts urged him forward. He leaned in, slowly, giving her time to pull away if she wanted. Then their lips met… Harry felt like time had stopped and the only person in the whole world was the girl in front of him. Unnoticed by either of them, a brilliant golden dome had sprung up around them and a sound like phoenix song could be heard. The kiss and the golden glow lasted for several minutes before the two came up for air and simply leaned their foreheads against each other, wide smiles on their faces. They then noticed the silence around them and turned to look noticing the shocked expressions on everyone's faces.

"What?" Harry asked.

**XXXXX**

A short time later, the two were in the Hogwarts Infirmary being thoroughly examined by Madame Pomfrey. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall stood nearby. Finally, the nurse completed her final round of scans and clucked to herself, and then turned to face everyone.

"Poppy," Dumbledore started, "What is it?"

She shook her head, "Only you Mister Potter, it's a soul bond Headmaster. A fully developed soul bond, though it will need a few days to fully mature. They will need to be kept together until that process finishes."

Dumbledore frowned and the normally stoic McGonagall's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Excuse me."

Everyone turned to look at Harry. "Um, just for those of us who don't have decades of magical experience or an encyclopedic knowledge," he smiled at Hermione, "What is a soul bond and what does this mean?"

Dumbledore gave a reassuring smile, "Please forgive us Harry, soul bonds are extremely rare you see, so it is a bit of a shock to find that one exists between you and Miss Granger. A soul bond is exactly that, your souls are connected. This will give you several advantages. Your magical cores will grow in size and power, Miss Granger will probably notice the largest increase as you young Harry are significantly more powerful than she is. You will be able to share thoughts and knowledge, speak mind to mind and feel each other's emotions. You will always be able to find each other." Dumbledore paused, "The soul bond has one particularly important consequence… the two of you are now considered to be married by magic and as such are now emancipated and considered adults in the magical world."

Both children were shocked, but happy. When the marriage bit came up, Harry looked over at Hermione and took her hand. "Mione, are you ok with this?"

She smiled, tears in her eyes, "Of course, I have just found out that my first and best friend is also my soul mate. You are the sweetest, kindest and most wonderful person I know Harry. How could I not be? But… are you…"

"Yes," Harry said quickly cutting her off, "I can't imagine anyone else by my side Mione. You me, forever…ok?"

She nodded and smiled, "Forever."

They then turned back to the adults, "So," Harry said, "what do we do to keep me and Mione together over the next few days."

**XXXXX**

It turned out the solution was to put them in the Griffindor Married Quarters, which were accessible through a hidden, password protected door in the common room. The quarters were warm and welcoming with tasteful furnishings and a Griffindor color scheme. There was a small study with two desk and chairs, a private bathroom and a bedroom with a large queen sized four poster bed.

After a lecture on behaving responsibly and not rushing into things they weren't ready for by McGonagall, the red faced teens were left alone.

"Well… _that_ was embarrassing," Harry said and laughed.

Hermione joined in, "I know. God, did they think we were gonna start shagging like rabbits as soon as we were alone?"

Harry waggled his eyebrows, "Well…"

Hermione smacked him on the arm and laughed, "Prat."

Harry nodded sagely, "True… but I am your prat and you love me."

Hermione turned serious, "I do you know… Love you I mean. I really do Harry. I have since the troll in first year."

Harry smiled, "You always were smarter, I didn't figure it out till you were petrified last year. And just to make it official, I love you too Hermione Potter."

She gasped and giggled, "I am aren't I?" Then her face changed to one of horror, "Oh no… what will we tell mum and dad?"

Harry smiled, "Well… I have to say that after everything I have faced over the last few years, meeting the parents and explaining that we are now married is probably the least terrifying thing I will have done. They love you and it's not like we planned this. Although… I _was_ gonna get a ring and propose after OWLs… though if you're up for it, I would still like to have a ceremony, maybe on a beach somewhere at sunset."

She tackled him on to the bed in a crushing hug, "Oh yes Harry, it will be so perfect. We can do it right after graduation if that's ok with you?"

He smiled, "Anything for you Mione."

The two settled in and snuggled and talked about the year ahead. Somehow Harry knew it would be another crazy year, but he would get through it with the help of the witch held tightly in his arms. Together they could do anything.

**XXXXXX**

End of Book 1


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